"They mustn't know that much about darts": Adrian Lewis calls out disrespect of Phil Taylor v Luke Littler comparisons

Adrian Lewis is pencilled in for a MODUS Super Series stint in a few months time and has been hitting the exhibitions hard ahead of his darting return. But during a sit down in Ipswich, he called out the disrespect levelled to Phil Taylor.

In particular in regards to the Luke Littler comparisons with the 16-time World Champion. Bobby George and Chris Mason in particular have had differing opinions and it brought about an exhibition which hilariously was an April Fools prank but brought debate and conjecture.

"It's a leg on leg pressure what Phil Taylor used to do to you. Looking at Luke at the World Championship for instance, his high would be obviously above Phil's but his mediocre wasn't as good as Phil's B game kind of thing. So that's when Phil would pounce on you," said Lewis to Online Darts.

"Definitely. I don't know who is saying these comments but they mustn't know that much about darts if they haven't seen Phil at his best. We've all witnessed this and have been in front of it many times."

In regards to his return, he said it will be in June and he has been tinkering with darts with Target, something that he couldn't do when he was playing prior. "All I know so far is it's in June. I don't think I'm going to do the full week. I think that's what I need. I am looking forward to the competition again. You need something just for yourself to try and prove yourself again."

"Before all I was focused on was trying to win matches, now I can tinker with things and try out different things. Instead of turning up with a basic pencil dart, short stem and short flight and just crack on. Any good dart player can throw any dart but can they throw them consistently enough and that's generally not the case."

But while he did call out the comparisons, Lewis lauded Littler and also for anchoring a new generation which is more about keeping themselves to themselves in the practice room over pranking each other.

"He's just a different level. There's only one player that can beat him at the minute and that's Gezzy (Price). Everybody else seems to not to be playing their A game against him. I could only feel (the aura) the likes of that with Phil Taylor and MVG in the practice room while I haven't been in the practice room so I don't know what goes on. But I know one thing, if I was coming through there's no way they'd let you have any aura they'd pounce on you."

"You need a bit of a needle. It used to fire me up. Now it's take out a ton and there's a fistbump. Just get on with it. Get on there and do your job. I hope it doesn't go to all these robots. I don't want that. You need a bit of character. Looking at the players now, I still think there's a future for it."

Prior to the prize money announcement, he said it is fully deserved that players will earn a million. "People don't realise how much you put into it and the sacrifices you make. It's deserved."