Wayne Mardle confirms ITV debut will be at World Masters and how Adrian Lewis is better than Luke Littler in one main facet

Wayne Mardle has confirmed that he will make his debut on the Winmau World Masters ITV coverage next weekend with 'Hawaii 501' returning to social media for the first time in a number of months.

Mardle who has long been a common feature on the platform decided to step away a few months back and has now returned and answered a few questions from fans who welcomed him back to X.

He said that he will be on the Winmau World Masters coverage which will be fronted by Pete Graves who works for Sky Sports ordinarily and will be the lead anchor when it comes to the coverage which begins next Friday when the top 24 as well as the qualifiers join the field at Arena MK.

Gabbie Partington who was lead anchor during the Bahrain and Middle East stint will not be in Milton Keynes, but it is likely that just like Mardle's presence it won't be as permanent as main ITV team of recent years.

For instance, Jacqui Oatley, Chris Mason, Alan Warriner-Little were on basically every single tournament for the broadcaster when they were involved but it is a more broader team so Mardle like Partington and Graves will likely do it when he has time free from other commitments. He will also work with Sky Sports still as will Glen Durrant, Mark Webster and Dan Dawson who are all part of the team.

The only real tournaments though that take place over the course of the ITV coverage is in fact the Premier League but of course this is only until May when only the UK Open will really be held with most of the ITV assigned events being during the latter half of the year. But his debut is now confirmed.

Chris Mason, Webster and Dawson are the only real surviving members of the former team with Webster working with Partington in the Middle East alongside Mark Wilson and Ian Danter, both have worked for talkSPORT for a long time so are commentators over pundits.

Other tidbits from Mardle's responses on social media regarded the draw which is not yet confirmed for the World Masters but he said he won't be tipping Danny Noppert for success again after being burned by the Dutchman in Saudi Arabia when he lost in the first round to Man Lok Leung.

He also was asked about whether Luke Littler is the best grouper of the dart ever and said no and that Adrian Lewis in his mind was 'different level'. Both two-time World Champions celebrate their birthday on the same day earlier this week but it seems that at least in one facet, Mardle thinks that Lewis is ahead of 'The Nuke' who seems to be taking all records as of late.