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The Quinten Hann match-fixing scandal was an isolated incident and will not effect snooker's assault on Asia, according to World Snooker's representative in China.

Australian Hann, who was the world number 22, was banned from professional snooker for eight years in February after newspaper allegations that he had been paid 50,000 pounds ($87,080) to lose a first round match against Ken Doherty at last year's China Open.

"We don't have a big problem with that," World Snooker's Simon Leach said at this year's version of the tournament in China's capital.

"Quinten Hann was an exception and that's why he was dealt with so severely. He won't be back.

"Occasionally every sport has its problem with players who don't want to be ambassadors and Quinten, apart from not being a very talented player, did not uphold the game too well."

Leach thinks targeting Asia, the home of gambling syndicates behind scandals in other professional western sports, will not increase the likelihood of further match-fixing in snooker.

"You don't get match-fixing in the English Premier League (soccer), and a lot more money is gambled on that week in, week out," he said.

Gambling is illegal in mainland China, something Leach hopes will soon change.

"We're hoping gambling opens up in China, which would bring the sponsors in," Leach said.

"We're clearly associated with gambling sponsors in the UK, and we're quite happy to be associated with them."

Leach's Beijing office, world snooker's only direct presence outside Britain, has been open for 18 months with the remit of building the sport up outside its British heartland.

There was an almost immediate boost when Chinese teenager Ding Junhui won the first China Open last year and followed that with a tournament win in Britain.

"We don't want to build the game on Ding, but he's certainly a marketing tool," Leach said. "Ding helped establish a platform and as a result, a lot of people want to be part of it now.

"We knew that Ding was a talented player, but we'd no idea he'd win the China Open. Then when he went on to win the UK championship, that cemented his reputation as a class player."

Ding's defence of his title last week ended with semi-final defeat to Mark Williams, who went on to beat John Higgins 9-8 in Sunday's final.

Welshman Williams was enthusiastic about playing in China.

"The crowds are very good here, very enthusiastic, and that's why we all like playing here," the Welshman told reporters. "I'm hoping that soon we'll be playing not just one tournament here every year but two or three."

Leach said that was certainly possible, but that his plans were for steady growth.

"Definitely the market's big enough for two or three ranking tournaments, but we're focusing on doing one well before moving on to others," he said.

(China Daily March 29, 2006)