SHAMEFUL DAY FOR THE SPORT

Ex-world champ Robertson shocked by scale of match-fixing as 10 players are hit with bans

- HECTOR NUNNS

LIANG WENBO and Li Hang were handed lifetime bans on a day of shame for snooker as 10 Chinese players were excluded in one of sport's biggest match-fixing scandals.

And the outcome sparked a stunned reaction.

Neil Robertson, the former world champion, described the scale of snooker's match-fixing scandal as "shocking". Robertson (right) said: "It is very bad news for the sport and the headlines tomorrow about match-fixing... I won't be looking forward to reading them at all.

"It is especially shocking because of the number - 10 players. You very rarely see that in stories about other sports. It is almost 10 percent of the tour. The only positive to come out of it is that the authorities have tracked it, investigated thoroughly going back several years, and taken strong action to get these guilty verdicts.