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Amongst elite snooker players, Neil Robertson is not a lone voice when it comes to talking in envious terms about the booming prize pots in professional darts. At last week’s Masters tournament at Alexandra Palace, 43-year-old Robertson was beaten by Kyren Wilson at the quarter-final stage.

Wilson then went on to beat 50-year-old John Higgins in the final. It was a nice payday for Wilson, collecting £350,000 for the victory.

That was ‘only’ £150,000 less than Zhao Xintong received for beating 50-year-old Mark Williams in the final of last year’s World Championship. The prize money for the next World Championship - taking place between April 18 and May 4 - is yet to be confirmed but it will be similar to the 2025 pool.

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Which means the champion will get around half of what Luke Littler earned for his win at the recent PDC World Darts Championship. And Robertson believes there is an obvious reason for the difference.

He says: “One million pounds for the world champion would be nice, wouldn’t it? But it’s not going to happen while we are playing in an arena with 900-odd fans allowed in, right? If we want to play for a million-pound plus to the winner, we need to move.”

And so, Robertson became the latest figure in snooker to insist the World Championship needs to move away from the Crucible in Sheffield, its home since 1977. There are plenty of people in the sport who agree with Robertson, the world number three.

But if Robertson believes the limited capacity of the Crucible is the main reason snooker’s world champion will not be getting the million pounds earned by the darts world champion, he is badly deluded. The main reason snooker’s world champion will not be getting a million pounds is because snooker does not have its own version of Luke Littler.

Zhao Xintong, at 28, was a relatively youthful winner of last year’s World Championship but the rankings are dominated by familiar, experienced names. Half-centurions Williams and Higgins are both in the top five, behind 36-year-old Judd Trump and Wilson and Robertson.

Mark Selby is 42 and ranked sixth, a place ahead of 43-year-old Shaun Murphy. There are young Chinese players coming through but where are the precocious British talents? Nowhere to be seen.

Let’s face it, snooker’s biggest draw remains Ronnie O’Sullivan and he is also 50 years of age. He has played in 33 World Championships and is making a recent habit of withdrawing from competitions.

As a venue for a major sport’s showpiece events, the Crucible is probably not big enough. But major sports have a turnover of talent that is far greater than snooker’s over the past couple of decades.

The Crucible - which has a contract to stage the World Championship until 2027 - is snooker’s spiritual home, with an atmosphere that actually comes through the television coverage. And contrary to what Robertson and others think, it is not the reason why the winner this year will not get Littler’s £1million jackpot.

No, the lack of a Littler in snooker is the reason. Simple as that.