Tony Drago and Alex Borg set for Snooker World Cup

The tournament will take place in the city of Wuxi in the Jiangsu Province from June 15 to 21, with the 24 two-man teams from 23 countries chasing a top prize of $200,000 from a total prize fund of $800,000. Malta are in Group A along with China A,  Austria, Singapore, Norway and India.

The home favourites Ding Junhui and Xiao Guodong are top seeds, as China won the last World Cup in 2011 when they beat Northern Ireland in the final in Thailand. Mark Selby and Stuart Bingham, the last two World Champions, make up a strong English team. John Higgins and Stephen Maguire will represent Scotland, while Mark Williams hopes to recover from a shoulder injury in time to play for Wales alongside Michael White. Australian pair Neil Robertson and Vinnie Calabrese will also be among the favourites. The Irish team is made up of veterans Ken Doherty and Fergal O’Brien while world number 37 Kurt Maflin will team up with his wife Anita Maflin for Norway.

The 24 teams will be divided into four groups of six teams, with each team to play five matches in the group stages. The top two teams in each group qualify for the knock-out stages. The tricky short format will be a combination of singles and doubles play.

WPBSA Chairman Jason Ferguson said: “This event will be a wonderful demonstration of how far we have come as a global sport in recent years. It will be fantastic to see nations such as Brazil, Iran, Qatar, Austria and many others show what talented players they have. Wuxi will be a tremendous host of this tournament and we look forward to it with great anticipation.”

Group A
China A (Ding Junhui and Xiao Guodong)
Norway (Kurt Maflin and Anita Maflin)
Singapore (Marvin Lim Chun Kiat and KK Chan)
India (Aditya Mehta and Pankaj Advani)
Malta (Tony Drago and Alex Borg)
Austria (Andreas Ploner and Paul Schopf)

Group B
Hong Kong (Marco Fu and Au Chi Wai)
Scotland (John Higgins and Stephen Maguire)
Iran (Hossein Vafaei Ayouri and Ehsan Heydari Nezhad)
Malaysia (Thor Chuan Leong and Mohd Reza Hassan)
Brazil (Igor Figueiredo and Itaro Santos)
Belgium (Luca Brecel and Thomas Skalski)

Group C
Australia (Neil Robertson and Vinnie Calabrese)
Wales (Mark Williams and Michael White)
Pakistan (Hamza Akbar and Muhammad Sajjad)
Qatar (Ahmed Saif and Ali Alobaidaly)
Poland (Mateusz Baranowski and Adam Stefanow)
Northern Ireland (Gerard Greene and Joe Swail)

Group D
England (Mark Selby and Stuart Bingham)
Republic of Ireland (Ken Doherty and Fergal O’Brien)
China B (Zhou Yuelong and Yan Bingtao)
Thailand (Dechawat Poomjaeng and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh)
UAE (Khalid Alkamali and Mohamed Shehab)
Germany (Lukas Kleckers and Felix Frede)