AFTER decades of infighting and missed opportunities, 2010 will go down in history as the year when professional snooker finally got its act together.

The significance of Barry Hearn taking control of the professional game should not be underestimated: His appointment was the first time in decades, possibly ever, that professional snooker was being run by somebody who had the skill and charisma to maximise the game’s commercial potential.

Hearn’s involvement in snooker dates back to the late 1970s, when he became Steve Davis’s manager after seeing him play in a club he owned.

As the 1980s progressed, Hearn began to manage a stable of players, including Dennis Taylor and Terry Griffiths, under his Matchroom Sport brand.

From the late 1980s onwards, Hearn branched out into other sports, most notably boxing, and during the 1990s he diversified into areas such as nine-ball pool, ten-pin bowling and even fishing.

During the 2000s, as chairman of the Professional Darts Corporation, he helped turn the sport into one of the biggest on TV. He is rightly regarded as one of sport’s shrewdest promoters with a reputation for straight-talking, and a strong understanding of the markets he enters into.

For most of the last 40 years, power at snooker’s boardroom level has resided largely with players and ex-players who do not have the business acumen to understand or develop snooker’s commercial interests.

Throughout those 40 years, some of those players who found themselves either chairman or board members of the WPBSA were well-meaning, but most were ultimately out of their depth. One of them (Mark Wildman) even understood the importance of professionalizing the commercial side of the game by bringing in experts. Some were, frankly, less well-meaning, and snooker’s governing body has almost constantly been wrangled with bickering, self-serving cliques, cronyism and farcical meetings for many decades. Ultimately, all previous attempts at restructuring the WPBSA had failed.

It was last December when the players finally removed Sir Rodney Walker and his allies from the Board following a tenure when the number of ranking tournaments had dwindled to just six and prize money at those that remained had been severely cut. Broadcasters such as Sky and ITV had long been lost, and it was not uncommon for the tournaments that remained to be without a sponsor.

Early in 2010, Barry Hearn published his vision for the future of snooker, and it was to be put to the vote at an EGM shortly after the World Championship. The plan was clear: he wanted absolute control of the commercial side of the game, and the freedom to run it as he saw fit. If he didn’t reach his targets in terms of prize money, the rights would revert back to the players, effectively putting them in a win/win situation. He would effectively act as a benevolent dictator of World Snooker Ltd, the game’s commercial arm, while the WPBSA’s role would be to look after the rules of the game, disciplinary matters and billiards.

After much debate, which included a controversial rival bid from another businessman, John Davison, Hearn’s proposals were passed by 35 votes to 29. Within a matter of a few weeks, Hearn was implementing his plan with the start of the Players Tour Championship.

Within a few months, the number of ranking events had risen from six to 20. Hearn quickly tapped into growth areas like Germany, Belgium and even Brazil. The World Cup returned to the calendar for the first time in 16 years and will take place in Thailand next year.

Sky committed to showing some WPBSA-sanctioned snooker for the first time in six years by signing a contract for the quick-fire ‘Sky Shootout’ tournament in January 2011. ITV returned to the fold for the first time in nine years when they showed ‘Power Snooker’, an innovative event put together by an independent promoter, but sanctioned by Hearn. It wasn’t to everybody’s taste, but it helped bring snooker to a new audience and brought Britain’s biggest commercial broadcaster back into the fold after a lengthy absence.

The fact of the matter is that since Hearn’s arrival, every televised event has been sponsored, while the players have been busier and better played. There is a buzz of optimism around the venues that has been lacking for a very long time, and few would argue that the overall standard of play has risen somewhat due to the increased opportunities to play in competitive matches.

The darkest moment for snooker in 2010 came when the News of the World released video footage on the first day of the World Championship final, set up by an undercover reporter in a hotel in Ukraine. It allegedly showed the then-reigning World Champion, John Higgins and his then-manager, Pat Mooney, agreeing to alter the results of specific frames in return for money. After many months of evidence, an independent report from Sport Resolutions UK found that the vast bulk of the blame lay with Mooney, who received a lifetime ban from involvement in professional snooker, while Higgins was essentially found guilty of naivety for failing to inform the authorities, for which he received a backdated ban of six months.

Yet even this dark episode had positive repercussions. In September, snooker’s Integrity Unit was set up, with three key strands: intelligence, prevention and investigation.

The main purpose of this unit is to cut out any problems at the root and to provide a massive deterrent. Players now know what is expected of them and what they should do if they are ever approached by somebody looking to undermine the game’s integrity in any way. It has also been made abundantly clear that the penalty for the most serious offences will be a lifetime ban.

It is now fair to say that snooker has safeguards in place to ensure integrity that are greater and more effective than in most other sports. Cricket could certainly do with taking a leaf out of snooker’s book when it comes to dealing with allegations of corruption: cricket’s integrity is being undermined by the secretive and time-consuming way such matters are dealt with.

Of course, the biggest stars in snooker are the players themselves and 2010 has brought us some memorable moments. For sheer excitement, the highlight must surely be Mark Selby’s deciding frame victory over Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final of The Masters in January.

The most successful player of the year was undoubtedly Australia’s Neil Robertson, who developed from a talented but inconsistent maverick to one of the most reliable and dedicated players on the circuit. His 18-13 victory over Graeme Dott in the final of the World Championship may not have been a classic match in itself, but his overall standard of the play in the tournament was superb, as he beat the likes of a resurgent Steve Davis and Ali Carter en route.

Robertson continued his good form into the first event of the 2010/11 season with victory in the inaugural World Open, in which he demolished Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final.

The other big winner of 2010 on the table was John Higgins, who convincingly beat Ali Carter 9-4 in the final of the Welsh Open in February. Following his six-month ban, Higgins won the first event he played in when he won European Players Tour Championship event five in Hamm, Germany, beating Shaun Murphy 4-2 in the final. In the very next EPTC event in Prague, Higgins reached the final before losing to Michael Holt in the deciding frame.

When Higgins returned to big-time snooker in front of the TV cameras at the UK Championship in December, he did so in style. Few who witnessed him fight back from 6-2 down to defeat Mark Williams 10-9 will forget what they saw in a hurry. The manner of his victory and his rededication to the game went a huge way to restoring any damage that had been done to his reputation by his failure to report that approach in Kiev to the relevant authorities.

Snooker has undergone a swift and unprecedented amount of change in 2010, which stands the game in good stead for a strong period of growth in the years ahead.

However, there are still problems and challenges ahead: the BBC will be reducing its snooker coverage from its customary four tournaments to three, starting next season. The World Open, which was regarded as a successful and exciting new tournament by virtually everybody in 2010, will not be shown by the BBC from 2011 onwards, due to a lack of money and a general policy of reducing the amount of sport shown on BBC Two in the future. It’s also highly unlikely that BBC Wales will continue to show the Welsh Open beyond 2011.

There are those that say Barry Hearn should threaten the BBC by telling them they can either show four tournaments or none at all. That said, there are clear commercial disadvantages in removing snooker completely from a popular, free-to-air broadcaster, so it may be better to allow them continue with the UK Championship, Masters and World Championship.

On the other hand, both ITV and Sky Sports have dipped their toe into the water in recent times, and Hearn’s negotiating hand will be stronger as a result of having them both on side, something that could not be said of his predecessor.

Realistically, with the new tournaments that are taking place within the next year or so, there is more than enough snooker now being played for there to be at least two major broadcasters of snooker in Britain.

Other challenges include the future of the World Open: despite the hugely successful inaugural event in Glasgow, the 2011 tournament does not have a TV broadcaster, and looking at the calendar, it seems very likely it will take place in China.

The finals of the Players Tour Championship, to be held in Dublin, currently lack a TV broadcaster, and its commercial success is not helped by the fact that many of snooker’s biggest names, including Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Neil Robertson have not qualified.

These, and other challenges, will need to be overcome, and there will inevitably be some ups and downs along the way.

But 2010 has been a year of overwhelmingly positive change, and a time when the foundations have been laid for an extremely bright future for snooker.