Snooker: Northern Ireland is taking its place on the international snooker stage with its first ever world ranking tournament, it was announced today.
World Snooker announced the 2006/07 professional tour will kick off in Belfast with the world's top 32 players plus 16 qualifiers competing at the city's Waterfront Hall between August 13th and 20th.
The likes of Ronnie O'Sullivan, Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis , world champion Graeme Dott will be lining up along with Dubliner Ken Doherty and Belfast's Joe Swails.
Prize money for the World Snooker Tour has risen by £400,000 to £3.26 million for the forthcoming year.
World Snooker chairman, Rodney Walker said: "I have stated many times that our goal is to increase the number of ranking tournaments and the level of prize money and I'm delighted that we are now in a position to start fulfilling
that promise.
"This growth has been achieved through our recent sponsorship and broadcast deals and it is only the first step in the development of the Tour. We intend to continue to boost events and prize money in the coming seasons."