"It's nonsense" - James Wade slams talk of World Cup of Darts rule change to accommodate Luke Littler

The English team at this year's World Cup of Darts consists of Luke Humphries and Michael Smith. For teenage sensation Luke Littler, this tournament comes too soon.

Littler has dominated this first six months on the Pro Tour with several titles, yet he is not there at the World Cup of Darts. To the surprise of some of darts' newer fans perhaps, but actually it makes complete sense considering only the two highest ranked Tour Card holders are selected for each country every time the World Cup of Darts rolls around. Humphries and Smith are ranked first and third respectively in the PDC Order of Merit, Littler is currently "only" 25th. However, if the 17-year-old Englishman continues to perform like this, it will be a matter of time before he is in action for the England team.

Some have spoken of a change in rules in order to accommodate Littler. For James Wade however, this opinion does not hold much water. "There has been a clamour for Luke Littler to be included in the England squad, but the World Cup teams have always been based on rankings. It's nonsense some want to change that just to skewer their favourite players into the event. Luke Littler will be there soon enough on his own merit," the former England World Cup of Darts star in his own right, writes in his column for the Daily Star.

An opinion that former world champion Dennis Priestley can only agree with. "Sky Sports and the PDC could change the World Cup of Darts selection process to get Luke Littler in this summer and they wouldn’t get much stick for it,” Priestley told BestAnonymousCasinos. "It would be the union who get the blame for letting them change the rules and I think it would cause a lot of upset for the players. They could even boycott if there is a late change of the regulations. It reminds me of them trying to fast-track Raymond van Barneveld into the Premier League when he moved over [from the BDO]."