BBC snooker pundits address Zhao Xintong's 20-month ban after World Championship win

pundits and both gave their verdict on the new world champion, , who starred at the World Championship on his first return since serving a 20-month suspension. The Chinese cueman , but his title may still have something of a cloud over it.

He was , which saw 10 players sanctioned. He did not fix a match himself, but accepted charges of being party to another player fixing matches and betting on games.

However, both Davis and Parrott felt that he had served his time and was deserving of a second chance in snooker.

"He has a blip on his CV, but I'm sure everyone in the country will agree people deserve a second chance," Davis said.

Echoing those sentiments, Parrott added: "It's a second chance and he's totally redeemed himself. He did the crime, he's had the time, he held his hand up, the association has handled it with the punishment he got.

"Two of his compatriots got life bans, it was handled very well. Here he is, he's got a second chance, he's come back and he won't be doing it again."

Six-time champion Davis only had more kind words to say about Zhao, telling Beeb host : "Every time anybody put anything up to him, he responded. He's a cool customer. He just takes everything in his stride and he's going to be a danger in the future.

"You see the quality of Zhao Xintong - it's the future and the shape of things to come. But not just from China, we're seeing more players come out from Europe as well. It's going to be a slow diversification around the world and snooker will be the healthier for it.

"From the UK's perspective, we've got some great young players coming through as well - it's going to be a great balance in the future. It's no longer just the top 16 that have it all their own way - the qualifiers are their own individual tournament and the qualifiers are getting stronger and stronger."

Zhao addressed the matter at the in November, a tournament he won in 2021, describing the matter as "a little mistake", albeit with the deficit of a language barrier.

He explained: "Two years ago I made a little mistake, now I've come back. I know how important snooker is to me and now I just want to come back to the snooker table.

"Let them [other players] know this is a big lesson, don't make the mistake. Play snooker, it's a very good thing."