Does the arrival of 'The Cyclone' represent the final wind of change for snooker?

The sport has been in steady decline since the 1980s, with even champion Ronnie O'Sullivan declaring it 'boring'. But Chinese interest in snooker could be the cue to its survival as Zhao Xintong becomes China's first World Champion

- Martin Phillips

THE air in Sheffield's Crucible Theatre was thick with cigarette smoke as 'Big' Bill Werbeniuk sank the black ball in the corner pocket to win the frame, then stepped triumphantly away from the green baize to sink a T pint of lager.

This was snooker at the height of its popularity in 1983 when the giant Canadian ranked eighth in the world - would famously drink at least six pints before a match and then one pint for each frame. It was even said, with a sense of admiration among the snooker players in working men's clubs, he had successfully claimed the cost of his prematch booze as a tax deductible expense.

And larger-than-life Werbeniuk was by no means the biggest name in the sport.

Hard-drinking, heavy smoking Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins, who had won the previous year's World Snooker Championship, and Jimmy 'The Whirlwind' White were the heroes of working class snooker amateurs up and down the country.

Fast forward 40 years and a new and very different hero has taken by storm a muchchanged sport.

Zhao The Cyclone' Xintong, the first Asian to win the World Snooker Championship after beating veteran Mark Williams 18-12 in Monday's final had walked, like other snooker stars, into a sold-out Crucible arena to the sound of soul music and the smell of money.

Energy drinks rather than alcohol are the fuel for today's players, smoking has long since been banned, the television audience is now global Xintong's and £500,000 winner's cheque easily eclipses the £30,000 Steve Davis won for the 1983 title.

What perhaps hasn't changed is a whiff of controversy.