Since the 1993 there has been 2 darts governing bodies the
BDO & the PDC but that has not always been the case & some would say it
shouldn’t be the case now.
Before I start giving my opinions on this here is some
background information on the matter
The BDO was formed in 1973 and would be the event organisers
for grassroots players (pub players) through to the elite players of that
period , once it started gaining popularity TV companies started taking an
interest and showing various events such as The News of the World Championship
, World Masters , British and World Matchplay and various others which meant
prize money started to increase.
However during the mid 80’s ITV decided to stop showing the
events therefore prize money started to fall & the lack of exposure made it
harder for the players that were probably part-time players to earn what they
would call a living through events or personal appearances & exhibitions.
When things didn’t start to improve 16 players Phil Taylor , Eric Bristow , John Lowe , Dennis Priestley , Alan Warriner , Bob Anderson , Jocky Wilson , Rod Harrington , Keith Deller , Cliff Lazarenko , Peter Evison , Jamie Harvey , Ritchie Gardner , Mike Gregory , Chris Jones and Kevin Spiolek decided to
break away & try to set their own governing body which would enable them to
hold their own events & eventually their own World Championships ,
obviously the powers that be of the BDO weren’t too keen to lose there best
attributes (their best players) so threatened legal action against them all and
banning them all from competing in any further BDO tournaments
After a long drawn out legal battle the 16 rebels as they
were described were awarded the right to form their own governing body which
became the PDC and the rest as they say is history……
Here is my opinion on this subject , the BDO does do good in
the fact it holds its own women’s tournament and on the grassroots aspect of
the sport & yes in my opinion darts is a sport but that is where it ends as far as I’m
concerned.
The lack of quality on what they call the World
Championships is shocking and any of their good talent soon defects to the PDC
where there is more exposure due to Sky’s excellent coverage and a lot lot more
money to be earned.
Anyone that watches any tournament on Sky can see that it’s
a spectacle for the everyone involved , from the MC usually the excellent John
McDonald , the commentators , the walk
on girls , the players walk on music , the players shirts & especially the
fans , they cheer for their favourites and boo the ones they don’t like , its
all part of the excitement.
The BDO events are like watching 2 blokes throw darts in a
morgue with the odd hand clap when someone eventually hits a 180 (maybe a
little harsh but I simply can’t watch the BDO)
Since the PDC have been running the Grand Slam of Darts
where they invite the more successful BDO players to compete against PDC
players it gives them a good opportunity to earn some good money and see if
they are good enough , the ones that do well tend to switch codes soon after.
One man who has declined every invitation to play against
the best is one Martin “Wolfie” Adams who is Mr BDO but in my opinion wouldn’t
be in the top 8 maybe top 16 in the PDC.
Now this is a man who is a 3 time World Champion so in
theory at the time he would have been the best the BDO had to offer , why
wouldn’t you take the chance to test yourself further & prove to the
darting world that you are the very best dart player in the world & play in
the mentioned tournament??
A point about my comment about Adams wouldn’t be very high
in the PDC is I’ll use another former BDO world champion who has since switched
in Ted Hankey , granted he has had some health issues which he has now
recovered from but he is currently ranked 88th and hasn’t qualified
for this years World Championships. This is a player that quite often dominated
tournaments in the BDO so tells me there is a huge gulf in the standard.
When was the last time anyone seen a 9 darter in a BDO event
, granted only a couple are shown on TV but I can’t remember any to be honest ,
where they are quite a regular occurrence at PDC events.
Should there be 2 different World Champions , in my opinion
no – how can you call someone the World Champion of darts when in my eyes you
have one tournament where the players are averaging in the 100’s constantly and
you really do have to play well to win a match never mind the whole tournament
& the other I’d imagine averages don’t go much higher than high 80’s &
is basically players that play in a pub on a Monday night ( probably slightly
better than your average Joe).
There has only ever been one head to head Champion vs
Champion in 2004 which saw the BDO World Champion “The Viking” Andy Fordham vs
the PDC World Champion Phil Taylor which in the end was a no contest when
Fordham conceded the match due to breathing difficulties & an asthma attack
believed to be brought on by the heat of the lights on stage. Taylor was 5-2 up at the time.
This should happen every year then that person would have
certainly earned the right to be called the best player in world but I doubt
will happen again.
Back to my point of comparing the two governing bodies , my
next gripe is the prize money!! Last years PDC Champion received a cheque for £200,000
and the total prize money available was £1,015,000 compare that
to the BDO where the champion received a cheque for £100,000 and a total
of £258,000.
Personally I would like to see governing body so at least
then all the players would have the chance to play for big money in front of
big crowds & then we would finally find out who the best darts player in
the world actually is , my money would still be on Phil Taylor followed by MVG ,
Adrian Lewis and if I’m being honest the only BDO player who would possibly be
in the top 16 would be Scott Waites (who has had success in the GSOD) but he is
another one that is refusing to switch , I guess being a big fish in a small
pond suits some people , whether they just find it easier or its an ego thing
where they can say that they’re the best of a bad bunch.
I can never see it happening as a couple of years ago Barry
Hearn offered to buy the BDO for £1 million but it was rejected & Hearn has
said it would have been a waste of his money as he’d be lucky to one or two
good players out of the deal.
Would Phil Taylor have won 16 World titles if the two were
unified we’ll never know but my guess would be if not all 16 he’d be very close
to that number and in my opinion is the greatest player ever to have played the
game.
