PDC chairman Barry Hearn believes some of Raymond van Barneveld’s troubles in his final year as a professional darts player are down to his lack of playing time last year.
The five-time world champion is calling time on his superb career at the end of the next World Championship, but his final year on the circuit is at risk of being a damp squib.
The Dutchman has already finished bottom of the Premier League and fell at the last 64 of the UK Open, with the highlight of 2019 so far being a run to the final of a ProTour event in Wigan.
Having slid down the rankings, Barney is now in serious danger of missing big tournaments such as the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix on his last year on tour, but Hearn feels he could have avoided this disappointing fate by turning up to more events last season.
‘I hope Barney is playing a few more events, but he should have played more events last year and he’s paying the price for it now,’ said Hearn.
‘He may well miss out on the World Matchplay and the World Grand Prix, which is a sadness in his last year because he should be playing in everything.
‘Watch this space and let’s hope he has some success, but he has to earn it.’
Despite not being one of the two highest ranked Dutchmen in the Order of Merit, there was a suggestion that Van Barneveld may have been handed a spot in the two-man Netherlands team at the forthcoming World Cup of Darts.
However, he was not given the chance to defend the title he won with Michael van Gerwen last year, with the place given to Jermaine Wattimena instead.
Hearn says that changing the rules for Barney was never really an option and that there was no ‘commercial advantage’ of doing so anyway.
‘Credibility is a vital part of sport,’ the 70-year-old continued. ‘If you are a made-for-TV special or a reality show then you can do anything, but when you’re looking at taking opportunity off other people purely for a short-term gain of an extended Barney tour…
‘Jermaine Wattimena has earned the right to play and I wouldn’t be so disrespectful to the sport to ignore that right in favour of, what some people would say is a commercial advantage, which I say is no commercial advantage, because people are in love with the game of darts.
‘The personalities make it but everyone is replaceable.’
The World Cup of Darts begins on 6 June where Van Gerwen and Wattimena will look to beat the likes of England, Scotland, Wales and Australia to the title in Hamburg.
Van Barneveld will likely be back in action on 21 June at the qualifiers for the Czech Darts Open and Austrian Darts Championship.
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