The battle to control snooker took another twist when a consortium bidding to invest �2.5m in the game withdrew their offer.

The move by Altium Sports Ltd to cancel their proposed investment leaves World Snooker Enterprises as the only company left to work alongside the World Professional and Billiards Snooker Association.

Unlike Altium, WSE, who unveiled their proposals to the WPBSA membership back in June, did not include a major cash injection as part of their plans.

Altium spokesman John Davison said his group was "extremely disappointed" to withdraw their offer.

Cost-cutting

As a result of Altium's withdrawal, a meeting for members to vote on their preferred option, was cancelled.

A WPBSA spokesman said: "The Board will now be holding further negotiations with WSE. We will keep players informed of the progress of these negotiations."

There are only six ranking tournaments planned for 2002-03 compared with last season's nine.

Due to a massive cost-cutting exercise tournaments in China, Thailand and Malta have been scrapped.

Major sponsors and major investment need to be found to prevent other tournaments from suffering the same fate.