Paul Nicholson has a lot of experience of the
World Cup of Darts previously representing Australia including the famous sudden death final with England back in 2012.
While Simon Whitlock is still involved in the Australia team to this day, Nicholson has cast his eye over proceedings for the latest column on Sporting Life discussing the good and bad of the tournament for players.
"From my experience as a commentator and a player, there are some competitors who look forward to this event a lot more than others. Some aren’t too sure about it due to the lack of ranking money but for others it’s one of the most important events in their calendars," said Nicholson on
Sporting Life.
"Belgium fall into the latter category – just look at how Kim Huybrechts has famously celebrated down the years and how well he performs. He’d probably want to win this more than anyone and while he’d have loved to do it with his brother back in the day, he obviously has a better partner in Dimitri Van den Bergh from an overall performance perspective."
More doubles action
But for Nicholson, changes are needed to this format with more doubles action wanted by 'The Asset' in the future.
"There’s no question about it – there should be doubles rubbers in every single match at the World Cup. I’m not even sure why that hasn’t come into force yet.
"The only certainty of a doubles rubber comes in the first round – when matches are decided by one best-of-nine leg encounter – and in the final, where it precedes the reverse singles rubbers. But apart from that, the second round, quarter-finals and semi-finals could all be decided by a team winning both singles matches.
"The doubles format has always been seen as a leveller. Even though the big nations like England (x4), Netherlands (x4), Scotland and Wales are the only ones to win this event, it doesn’t mean they’ve breezed it or never suffered early exits in the doubles.
"Phil Taylor and James Wade crashed out in the very first edition to Spain while Scotland have only won it once with their obvious strength and in 2017 they famously lost to Singapore, who then dumped out Wales a year later. It’s the most exciting format of the World Cup and gets the juices going for fans and players alike."