The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is working with Kyren Wilson and his wife, Sophie, to establish a support network for players’ families. April’s World Snooker Championship is when they hope to have the initiative up and running, so that it can help those family members left behind when players go on tour.
Wilson, while working away on the World Snooker Tour, leaves Sophie with their two children, Bailey and Finley. They are not alone in having a young family either, with Neil Robertson, who leaves his wife, Mille Fjelldal, and two children, Alexander and Penelope, in Australia, one example the Wilsons highlight.
The world No.2 said, via SportsBoom: “In snooker, obviously, you see the players go out, but there’s no actual support for the families back home. Especially when you’ve got… let’s give Neil Robertson, for instance, from Australia, his family is well back on the other side of the world.”
“So, it’s just about trying to create a support network, whether it be a big WhatsApp group, whether it be a big family day out. Just basically a number to call.”
Wilson acknowledges: “Sophie is at the forefront of it. I’m just following in her footsteps, really, so I don’t want to take any limelight off of her; she did amazing.”
He is also already looking to expand it across other sports. “I think it would be fantastic to have the World Snooker organisation, along with my wife, to be the first to do it in sport. And then who knows, it could take off from there, and maybe somebody could take the blueprint from what they’ve done and take it into another sport.”
April, however, is their next milestone after having a casual coffee-meeting event during the Masters at Alexandra Palace. They said: “That was the first sort of mini stepping stone during the event on Saturday. We’re hoping, fingers crossed, that we can maybe get something up and running a bit clearer by the World Championship. That’s the plan.”
‘The Warrior’ also wants snooker to take inspiration from boxing. He said: “Why can’t we have a corner man that can come to your chair after each frame and just be like, ‘listen, I think you can work on this. How are you feeling?’
“Blah, blah, blah, blah. And I think that could really work in snooker. Maybe taking a leaf out of the boxing, out of the tennis, out of the golf.”
Wilson explained: “It could be your technical coach or your mind coach. It could be anyone, really. But yeah, for me at the moment, it would be someone like my brother.”