Allegations of corruption and bribery have cast a huge cloud over the showpiece of snooker, writes Carl Jones in Sheffield.

Graeme Dott should have been the Scotsman taking centre stage as the world snooker final kicked off at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield yesterday.

But instead, it was his countryman John Higgins whose name was on the tip of everyone’s tongues.

How could he consider taking cash to fix results? What was he thinking of? Could it possibly be as bad as it appeared in the Sunday paper?

From the mood inside the press room at the Sheffield venue, it appears the answer is yes, it most definitely can.

Claims in yesterday’s News of the World, backed up by secretly-shot video, that three-time world champion Higgins and his manager have allegedly been discussing bribes for agreeing to fix results, has left players, officials and fans stunned.

For this is not just some jobbing snooker player scrapping around trying to make a living in the sport’s lower echelons – it is one of the game’s all-time legends who has made a fortune from it, and doesn’t need to bend the rules to pocket a quick back-hander.

If the Higgins camp truly has been happy to take bribes, then how many other players, whose financial need is greater, have been tempted to do it as well?

This scandal could not have come at a worse time. Multi-millionaire promoter Barry Hearn has exciting plans for the future of the sport after taking control of snooker’s governing body.

Now, somewhat understandably, he is apparently contemplating throwing in the towel barely weeks after taking on the job.

Six-time world champion Steve Davis was visibly upset by the revelations as he digested the newspapers yesterday morning.

He claimed he would have to seriously contemplate whether to carry on in the game if the news persuaded Hearn to turn his back on the game.

Dennis Taylor, who along with Davis shared the most famous frame in snooker history at the height of the game’s popularity in 1985, said the fact that the player under suspicion was Higgins made it all the more shocking.

Taylor said: “He does so much to promote everything that is good about the game around the world, and has been seen as an ambassador. I’m stunned.”

And what about the fans? Telford dad Danny Smith, from Lawley, was among the audience at the Crucible yesterday afternoon, and said: “There’s no doubt that some of the money and glamour has gone out of snooker over the past 10 or 15 years.

“Players have seen prize money and the number of big tournaments dwindle.

“If the Higgins accusations prove to be true, we now know how some players have been choosing to supplement their income. Even the innocent players come under question.”

A match featuring another Scot – Stephen Maguire – played in Telford last year is already under the legal spotlight amid claims of irregular betting patterns, and word in the media room is that there have been rumblings of suspicion about the integrity of the sport for some months, though nothing before this weekend had been brought into the open.

The atmosphere at the Crucible yesterday was strangely muted. Not much shakes the hard-core Press contingent, but this has rendered them genuinely astonished.

Many said they couldn’t believe what they were reading, and watching.

The next 12 months were supposed to herald the rebirth of the sport, with Hearn masterminding more tournaments, fresh innovations, and a big boost in revenue following the blueprint he successfully used to turn darts into glitzy sporting showbiz.

Since the banning of tobacco sponsors in snooker, bookmakers have so far filled much of the financial void.

But they will surely be hesitant to put their brand on a sport tainted by talk of betting irregularities.

Players such as Shropshire’s Adrian Gunnell, who has been lurking just outside the world’s top 32 for several years, have spoken up in the past about the difficulty of being a full-time professional with so much money leaving the sport.

He, like the vast majority who toil in the qualifying rounds and rarely make it to big-money finals, needs a return to the sport’s glory days when 18 million viewers tuned in to see that Davis-Taylor classic world final in 1985.

The sport doesn’t quite need snookers yet, but after the latest unsavoury headlines it is in need of a big break, and quickly.

All eyes are now on John Higgins to see if he can talk some trust and integrity back into the shellshocked game . . . and talk his way out of a potentially career-ending mess.