Stephen Hendry is set to come out of retirement while Steve Davis has received a career lifeline after Barry Hearn, the World Snooker chairman, offered the veterans a unique route back on to the professional tour.
The pair will not be handed full two-year tour cards, but seven-time world champion Hendry, who retired two years ago, and six-time winner Davis are set to play at a number of tournaments next season. They could even be back at the Crucible in 12 months' time. "I went for friendship as well, and loyalty. I don't know if I'm guilty of that but, if I am, I plead guilty as well," said Hearn. "Stephen, I understand, is getting quite serious about playing so we'll have to see what form he brings to the table and how often he wants to play."
Up to four senior players will be invited back to the tour.
The third invitation will go to Jimmy White if he falls off tour, which he will if Ding Junhui's conqueror Michael Wasley reaches the World Championship quarter-finals.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article