It has been almost six months since Kim Huybrechts and Dimitri van den Bergh did not give each other a glance in their first match at the World Cup of Darts, precisely the tournament that requires countries to operate in teams.
There appeared to be no sign of a cohesive team among the Belgians. They completely ignored each other during their match against Finland, which was nevertheless won 4-0. After the intervention of manager Mac Elkin, relations normalized a bit and Huybrechts and Van den Bergh managed to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup of Darts in harmony after, among other things, a victory over the Netherlands.
Little is yet known about the cause of the feud between the two top Belgian darters. There were rumors that the partners of both players were feuding with each other, but that story was dismissed as nonsense by Huybrechts. However, it did become clear that Van den Bergh had filed an official complaint against his 38-year-old compatriot.
Six months later, the two Belgians are getting along better. ''They say hello to each other, but they won't bring up small talk. No more than necessary, but there is no hatred toward each other. ''Best friends, that's something else,'' Huybrechts' wife Dana Verhaegen told Het Nieuwsblad.
Huybrechts let slip words to a similar effect in September. ''We do talk again now. We say hello and have a chat when we see each other. It's not that we're best buddies, sitting at the same table or gaming together at hotel, but ... You know, I've known Dimitri since he was born. There have been issues and there still are, they're not suddenly gone, but we do act normal to each other. We also learned a very hard lesson then, a good one maybe. Everyone has issues, the downside for us was that it was highlighted for millions of viewers.''
Het Nieuwsblad also contacted the PDC to ask whether the disciplinary committee had already settled Van den Bergh's complaint. ''The procedure is in full swing,'' the PDC informed the Belgian medium. ''Nothing will be made public about the case until a final decision has been made. That will not happen during the World Championship, so think more like January or early February for a ruling. The reason it is taking so long is because of other cases Huybrechts is currently involved in.''