History maker Rory McLeod will once again make best use of his snooker skills at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield when the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship gets underway on 16 April.
At snooker’s flagship event two years ago, McLeod became the first black man to reach the televised knockout stages. On that occasion he was beaten 10-6 by fellow Englishman Mark King.
Later in the same season he had a similar first when he made it to the final stages of the Masters at Wembley.
Amazingly, the 40-year-old is still the only black player plying his trade on the professional tour. It is a puzzling statistic for McLeod.
“This has always been a predominantly Caucasian sport, whether we like it or not,” he said. “I’ve never had a racist problem in the game itself, but I’m the only black professional on the planet and I’ve never been given a biscuit by World Snooker, whereas other nationalities have been given hand-outs like there’s no tomorrow.”
He continued: “I don’t want anything, I’ll earn it myself, but if I was a businessman I could see there are routes to go down where I would be an asset.
“World Snooker have never asked me to do anything. Hopefully now [promoter] Barry Hearn is back in the sport, he will see things in a different light.”
McLeod has been a regular on the professional circuit since 2001 and has slowly moved up the world rankings to where he currently lies at 36. His tournament best is reaching the last 32 on five occasions at ranking events.
Earlier this year he reached the last 16 of the newly held World Snooker Shootout only to be beaten by the eventual winner Nigel Bond.
The Northamptonshire professional, who is of Jamaican parentage, actually turned pro in 1991 but was forced to leave the sport he loved when he found it constantly difficult to secure sponsorship.
He said: “You need backing. I don’t think other black players have had the backing. If you look at Ronnie O’Sullivan, Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry, they have never done anything else. They have never had to, because they had backing.
“John Higgins and Shaun Murphy the same, Shaun was getting sponsorship from nine years old. They have been almost bred for it. In the black community that does not happen, and if it did there would be a few more knocking at the door.”
McLeod added: “Look at China: they are throwing money at it and producing a load of talented players, but who is throwing money at the black community? Whether it is a bit of prejudice or racism, I don’t know.
“If I was to say that there is no racism out there I’d be lying, because there is. People are racist, how much is another thing. There is racism on this planet.”
McLeod has already guaranteed himself £12,000 (€13,400) by reaching the last 32 at the upcoming World Champion-ship, but will have his eyes on the winner’s cheque for £250,000 (€280,550).
His first round match against Ricky Walden on 19 April starts at 10am and marks the beginning of a difficult road to the final, especially with four former world champions – Mark Williams, Shaun Murphy, Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins – in McLeod’s half of the draw.
