‘Not like Nicole Kidman’: snooker stars arriving for Hong Kong Masters can visit venue during quarantine restrictions
- Players may enter venue during their first three days in Hong Kong – a right not enjoyed by other incoming travellers under city’s 0+3 quarantine rule
- Originally planned as a ‘closed loop’, the Masters has won an exemption from government, but officials reject comparison with episode involving actress Kidman
City snooker chiefs said exempting the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan from the rules normally applied to incoming travellers was different from last year’s Kidman episode – when the government’s decision to allow the Australian actress to skip quarantine caused a major backlash among residents.
Hong Kong’s latest quarantine requirement of three days’ medical surveillance with limitations on movement – dubbed “0+3” – includes being barred from sports venues. Breaching quarantine rules is a criminal offence.
With players arriving less than three days before the Masters begins on Thursday, organisers needed the government to waive the regulations to allow them to practise, or indeed to compete, without the need for a “closed loop” restricting them to match venue the Hong Kong Coliseum and their hotel.
The chairman of the Hong Kong Billiard Sports Control Council (HKBSCC), Vincent Law Wing-chung, defended the arrangement.
“The case of Nicole Kidman was completely different,” he said. “She was [wholly] exempted from quarantine. Our players still have to observe 0+3. They cannot dine in restaurants. The only exemption they have is to enter the Coliseum during the first three days.
