Matt Selt has been voted onto the WPBSA Players Board (Picture: Getty Images)
Matt Selt is intent on improving communication between players and World Snooker Tour and to ‘work for the greater good of the game’ after joining the WPBSA Players Board.
The 38-year-old was voted onto the board with Shaun Murphy and Mark Davis last month, joining chairman Ken Doherty and former pro Nigel Bond as part of the team representing the interests of players on the tour.
The Players Board was set up in late 2020, with Doherty saying at the time: ‘As a player’s association we will aim to represent their collective best interests and ensure that we all play our part in ensuring the safe continuation of the World Snooker Tour.’
Selt feels that the Players Board is something of great importance that has not been used to its full extent as yet, and he intends to change that.
‘I think that Players Board is an under-utilised commodity,’ Selt told Metro.co.uk. ‘It’s very, very important and in my opinion it hasn’t been that well viewed. People don’t have much trust in what’s going on. So it’s up to us to make better communication between all parties. It’s exciting really.
‘The communication has been so poor, from WST, the WPBSA, the Players Board, the players. People feel like when they want to vent they don’t have anywhere to go and we will change that.
‘Whether we’re able to actually do any good remains to be seen. That’s down to communication between the Players Board and WST, there needs to be a relationship that works harmoniously and things can work better for both parties.
‘I feel like I’ve got good communication with a lot of people on both sides. If I can get everyone talking and not being angry then it’ll be job well done and the game can move forward.’
Selt wants to be a conduit for better communication Getty Images)
Communication is the key for Selt, who isn’t pushing for drastic, sweeping changes on tour, but feels the working relationship can be vastly improved.
‘I think WST do a good job in what they do, but in some of the things they do we just don’t get enough information about why decisions are made,’ he said. ‘That’s paramount in educating players going forward.
‘It’s hard to have the hump with people when they’re telling the truth, if someone does something, tells you and shows you the reasons why they’ve done it. You can question people when you don’t know what’s going on and that will get people irate. At the end of the day WST are not going to try to jeopardise the game, they want to make it bigger and better, but when people don’t feel like they’re being told what’s going on it’s hard.
‘I don’t know what they were doing before, but while the previous board were there I had zero correspondence to ask how things were. That’s all got to change. The five of us on there will have weekly scheduled meetings, then an official meeting every month and I’d like to have a meeting with the players every month. A lot more communication. Then a Players Board meeting with WST every quarter.
‘I’m slightly annoying, I can make myself busy in them channels and get things done. I’d like to think that if anyone can build a better relationship between the players and WST it’s me, so I’m excited. I want to get us all marching in the same direction. It’s all positive. I’ve never really been one for slagging WST off, but the relationship does need to get better, that’s the only objective I have really. I’m confident I can sort it out.’
There have always been and always will be issues the players have with the way the sport is run, with the major dispute this season being when and where players are able to play in exhibitions after the Macau Five drama.
Selt says there are changes he wants to bring about, specifically to the ranking system, but he is not motivated by his own agenda, just to see players using their voices more effectively.
‘The only thing that annoyed me was the players getting really pissed off but not doing anything about it,’ he said. ‘People would moan, you’d ask what they’ve done and the answer is nothing.
‘The problem sometimes was they didn’t know where to take the problem to and get their voice across. I think people underestimate what this Players Board is about, it’s so important, it’s massive. That was annoying me.
‘I don’t have anything on my agenda really. I’ve got things I’d like to say, the ranking list is my issue, but that’s not just me, nobody wants a money ranking list. We started the ball rolling on that and we’ll see how accommodating WST are to change that. But my agendas are not really why I joined the board. That might be unbelievable from someone who’s very opinionated and not shy of saying what’s on my mind. But on this occasion it’s for the greater good of the game, it really is.
‘The prize money list, I’d say 85 per cent plus of players don’t want a prize money list, but we’re told it’s commercially valuable. If they can show us why it’s commercially valuable then fine. The players have got to have some say in the rankings, I think. WST run the tour, run events, I don’t get why they run the ranking list. Changing that would be great.’
Shaun Murphy was voted onto the Players Board with Selt (Picture: Getty Images)
Selt is keen to keep expectations realistic, but not unambitious, for example when it comes to prize money.
‘We’re not saying we want double the money in every event. We’re being realistic,’ he said. ‘But I do think prize money should be going up 2 per cent, 5 per cent every year.
‘The Home Nations has been pretty much the same prize money for 10 years. In fact the semi-finals has gone down. WST say the prize money has increased, but they just chuck it on the winner’s prize, it’s just not relevant to almost everyone.’
Selt is not putting his cue away to focus on snooker politics, quite the opposite as he feels he is performing as well on the table as he ever has.
Wins over the likes of Mark Allen, Ali Carter, but specifically Mark Selby, this season have Selt believing more success is to come.
‘I’m playing the best snooker now I’ve ever played,’ said the Indian Open champion. ‘I had my biggest and best victory when I beat Selby in the Scottish Open.
‘I look up to him so much, I think he’s so good, so to beat him it was a big thing for me, I was really proud of that. I just think of him as a completely different animal.
Selt was thrilled to pick up a win over the four-time world champion (Picture: Getty Images)
‘I’ve had some really good wins this year. Mark Allen, Ali in the UK [Championship], I’ve been very good in the qualifiers. If you ask me why I’m not winning tournaments, I can’t really answer you. I feel like something good is round the corner.
‘But it is crazy that I feel I’m playing really good snooker, the best I’ve ever played, and I’m nowhere near winning a tournament. You look at the boys who win regularly and think, how do you get to that level? How do you do it?
‘The top boys just keep winning, they don’t make silly mistakes at silly times. That’s something to address. But it is going well, I’m loving playing snooker and I hope getting on that board doesn’t harm it.’
Players in Selt’s position, currently ranked 29 in the world with one ranking title to his name, can look at Zhang Anda’s unexpected success this year as something of an inspiration as he burst from 57 in the world to the top 16 in no time this season thanks to a spectacular run of form.
An English Open final defeat to Judd Trump followed by lifting the International Championship trophy and Zhang will make his Masters debut next week as a result.
‘My head to head with him I think is 6-0,’ said Selt. ‘If you’d have asked me six months ago what Zhang Anda is like I’d have said very ordinary. Then suddenly he’s playing the best snooker on the planet!
‘It’s a bit of confidence, he isn’t missing any balls. What an incredible achievement to do that, from doing absolutely nothing in your career to out-playing Trump in the final and only losing because he hadn’t been there before, to winning one of the biggest tournaments on the tour. Phenomenal.
‘I’m so happy for people like him. He’s sacrificed so much. I feel like this with all the overseas players, they sacrifice so much. So I’m genuinely happy for him. But it doesn’t give me any hope, my hope is knowing how good I am, and yet I’m only 60 or 70 per cent of where I could be.’
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‘I’m slightly annoying, I can get things done.’