World Snooker Championships rescheduled to begin on July 31

The World Snooker Championship was originally scheduled to be held from April 18 to May 4 this year.

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The 2020 edition of the World Snooker Championships has been rescheduled to take place from July 31 to August 16 at The Crucial Theatre in Sheffield, subject to government's policy.

In March, the World Snooker Championship--which was originally scheduled to be held from April 18 to May 4 this year--was postponed in the wake of the novel coronavirus that has spread all across the globe and was recently termed 'pandemic' by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

However, the game's prestigious tournament has now been rescheduled after discussions with key stakeholders including Sheffield City Council, the BBC, Eurosport and Sheffield Theatres.

Though the World Snooker Tour is keen to stage the event with a full crowd at iconic the Crucible Theatre which has an audience of just under 1,000 spectators.

If the same is not possible based on government advice at the time, the WST will consider playing the event with a reduced crowd or behind closed doors or even postponing the event to a later date again.

Reflecting on the decision to reschedule the tournament, WST Chairman Barry Hearn said: “We are delighted to confirm new dates for this huge global sporting event which has an international television audience of 500 million people. The world is going through a very challenging period but live sport can be a massive inspiration for the public and can boost morale. This gives fans of top class sport something on their calendar to look ahead to and enjoy for 17 days.

Meanwhile, the dates for the qualifying rounds will be confirmed later.