DO not adjust your sets.

Alan McManus will be a vision in tartan when he gets his World Snooker Championship campaign under way against Ali Carter at the Crucible Theatre today.

The 44-year-old's tartan breeks became something of a cause celebre when he wore them all the way to last year's quarter-final, so this year the Glaswegian has opted for the "full regalia". Typically in the understated world of snooker, this means he is adding a waistcoat, not a 'See You Jimmy' wig.

For a while, when the snooker tour was at its nadir, with just a handful of tournaments sprinkled about throughout the calendar, McManus freely admits he was flying by the seat of his pants. He was demoralised, demotivated, not putting in the hours on the practice table. But the arrival of Barry Hearn as tsar of world snooker has called him to attention.

A ranking which at one point had dropped beneath 50 now stands at 23, and McManus is embracing a new life which involves plenty of high-profile tournaments away from his native Glasgow, even if the travelling is a drag now and then.

"The best thing about the Barry Hearn era is how active the players are, it keeps you sharp," said the two-time World Championship semi-finalist. "Since we've been busy again I've decided to train like I used to do on the practice table, put the real hard yards in.

"I did that for years but if I am being honest I slacked off quite a bit, due to the lack of tournaments. It was very difficult to get yourself going but I have really knuckled down. I decided a few years ago that if I am going to be doing this full time I am going to do it properly.

"When the stomach is churning, that is the drug for me. I don't think I would ever get that feeling elsewhere. But whether it is playing on TV or playing in a back room somewhere, it doesn't really make a difference. I just enjoy playing the game, apart from everything else that goes with it."

Not that such a world rating is enough to guarantee easy passage at Sheffield. Only the world's top 16 are granted direct access into the main draw these days, subjecting everyone else to a gruelling series of three 19-frame encounters at Ponds Forge. Graeme Dott, the 2006 world champion, is just one man who has criticised this process but McManus - who has already made it past Michael Wasley, Andrew Pagett and Mitchell Mann to get this far - wouldn't have it any other way.

"Last year I had three qualifying matches then another best of 19 at the Crucible then two best of 25s," said McManus. "So it was six matches in the space of a couple of weeks, all of which were really long and draining. So when I ended up losing to Mark Selby, a small part of me was delighted to get up the road.

"I know this will sound like it is easy to say now that I am through," he added. "But when Barry Hearn announced the new format I was in favour of it. It should be hard to qualify for the Crucible."

With last year's champion Selby, aka the 'Jester from Leicester', already having to endure a last-frame decider against Kurt Maflin of Norway, this year's tournament seems as open as any in recent memory. While he likes the odds of 14-1 against any Scot winning, his own personal favourite is Judd Trump, the 25-year-old who reached the world final here in 2011.

As for his own first-round opponent, Ali Carter, McManus knows he will be cast in the role of bad guy against a player making his return to the Crucible after being diagnosed with lung cancer. His fellow players agreed to the two-time world finalist's ranking being frozen at 31 and he is sure to be a popular returnee to this venue. "He is a nice laddie and I have got to know him a little bit with his cancer troubles," said McManus. "This will be his first time back after him getting through his chemo. It is going to be an emotional tournament for him, when he gets his intros and all that."

Snooker has fallen off from its glory days of the 80s, but the sport might just be ripe for a revival, even if McManus would rather it didn't go down the darts route and go for some of the gimmicks which have been suggested. "Darts is pack-em-in, there's a pitcher of beer, you get moroculous and pretend you are watching the darts when you are actually wearing a Pink Panther outfit," McManus said.

"It is harmless but I don't really think it is a proper sport, that is just my opinion, and I wouldn't want that kind of thing to catch on with snooker. Credit to the Peter Wrights and all these guys, it is good telly. I know there are quite a few guys with a bit of character, with all the nicknames and the hairstyles and the dolly birds. But I think we have got a bit more class."