Darts icon Raymond van Barneveld says Luke Littler never practices behind the scenes and he doesn’t know how the world number one does it. Littler has enjoyed an incredible year, winning the World Darts Championship, Grand Slam of Darts, World Grand Prix, World Matchplay, UK Open and the Players Championship Finals.
He came through his first round match at Ally Pally to begin his World Championship defence, beating Darius Labanauskas 3-0 on the opening night of the tournament. 58-year-old Van Berneveld saw his tournament come to a disappointing end after he was beaten by Stefan Bellmont as the five-time world champion crashed out of the competition.
Speaking ahead of his defeat at Ally Pally, the Dutchman told the Sun: « You cannot compare my age aged 18 to the 18-year-olds now. Life was different. We didn’t have the internet. I wanted to be Eric Bristow or John Lowe or Bob Anderson or Jocky Wilson.
« Those were my heroes and in Holland we didn’t get much English TV at the time. You couldn’t watch the darts properly. What we saw we got out of magazines, you saw the results and you were dreaming that I want to be one of them.
« If I met one of my heroes like Eric Bristow, I was like ‘oh my god – I’ll make a picture of you’. My parents were so proud. If you compare it to right now, they don’t care anymore, you know. They’re playing their Playstations and their Nintendos and whatever.
« They’re on their phones all the time. They’re chatting. If I see Luke Littler back in the practice area he’s just on his phone. The guy never practises. I don’t know how they do it.
« There’s a sort of respect, of course, but it’s not like they’re scared of you and it doesn’t really matter if it’s Luke Littler or someone else. I played Darren Beveridge. He beat me 6-5. There’s nothing like shaking hands anymore.
« They just do their job. They’re not scared of anyone anymore and even Michael van Gerwen is witnessing this now. Look at him on the tour last year and we all know what happened to him in private. But before that came out, he was already struggling. Like losing in the first round many times.
« They don’t care anymore. Everyone is progressing and everyone is doing better at the moment. They can see, hey there’s a million pounds to win here in the world championship and if I practice hard and I work hard, maybe I’m the one who can do this. »
Littler is back in action on Sunday against David Davies.
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