Clive Everton criticises BBC and IMG

Snooker commentator Clive Everton said the IMG Media agency had been given too much power as an independent producer of the BBC’s snooker coverage, in criticism of the handling of the termination of his contract with the UK public-service broadcaster.

Writing in Snooker Scene, Everton claimed that he was “sacked in a corridor” by IMG managing director of production worldwide, Graham Fry.

Everton has been a snooker commentator on the BBC for 30 years. The 74-year-old accused the broadcaster of ageism by replacing him with snooker player Stephen Hendry in the commentary line-up.

“I am not the only long-term freelance to suffer from BBC high-handedness — Dougie Donnelly and Angus Loughran are among others who have been poorly treated,” Everton said, according to the Daily Mail. “All viewers who have protested about my marginalisation were effortlessly dead-batted by BBC’s practiced public relations responses.”