Higgins will take on Jersey champion Aaron Canavan (Getty)

The Channel Islands' best snooker players have been drawn against some of the stars of the game in the first round of the new World Series event.

Home champion Aaron Canavan takes on last year's world champion John Higgins in the opening round being held in Jersey later this month.

Guernsey's top player Martyn Desperques will face 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy in his match.

While Jersey's Gary Britton takes on 1997 world champion Ken Doherty.

Jersey is the first of four venues in Europe to host the event.

It then goes to Moscow in July, Amsterdam in September and Warsaw in October before the Grand Final at an undisclosed location.

The aim of the competition is to pit the best players of the world against some of the best local players, with a 40,000 Euro top prize for the overall winner.

The winners of the four tournaments and the four best-placed local players meet in the Grand Final for the top prize.