A late change to the BetVictor World Cup of Darts has seen the Chinese team replaced by Latvia for this weekend’s tournament in Salzburg.
The Chinese pairing of Di Zhuang and Zizhao Zheng were set to make their World Cup debuts this weekend, and had been scheduled to face Hong Kong in Friday’s first round.
The duo had received valid Austrian visas and provided negative PCR swab tests, and had been due to fly via Amsterdam to Austria, arriving on Friday.
However, due to an administrative technicality relating to their flight connection, they were denied boarding for their flight and as such are unable to compete in the World Cup.
They will be replaced in the first round draw by Latvia, who will be represented by PDC Tour Card Holder Madars Razma and Janis Mustafejevs, the next-ranked Latvian from the PDC Nordic & Baltic rankings.
PDC Chief Executive Matt Porter explained: “We’re very disappointed that the Chinese team has been unable to make it to Salzburg.
“The two players and their management worked extremely hard to adhere to all the additional requirements that are needed for international travel at this time, flying domestically to obtain the required visa to enter Austria which they obtained only on Thursday after several weeks of paperwork submissions, and incurring significant personal cost in the process.
“They were denied boarding at Guangzhou airport on Friday morning local time on a minor administrative technicality which unfortunately there is no time for them to rectify if they were to be able to make it to Austria at any time on Friday.
“We thank the Latvian pairing for their willingness to be on stand-by until the last minute and look forward to welcoming them to the event.”
Latvia’s game with Hong Kong will remain the final match of Friday’s evening session at the Salzburgarena, with the winners set to take on Belgium or the Czech Republic.
The BetVictor World Cup of Darts will be televised on Sky Sports as well as through the PDC’s international broadcast partners including RTL7 and DAZN, as well as for PDCTV ‘Rest of the World Subscribers’ and on matchroom.live.
2020 BetVictor World Cup of Darts
Schedule of Play
Friday November 6
Afternoon Session (1300 local time, 1200 GMT)
8x First Round
Lithuania v Gibraltar
Portugal v Hungary
New Zealand v Denmark
Northern Ireland v Canada
Belgium v Czech Republic
Austria v USA
England v Philippines
Italy v Spain
Evening Session (1900 local time, 1800 GMT)
8x First Round
Sweden v Greece
Japan v Scotland
Poland v South Africa
Republic of Ireland v Australia
Wales v Russia
Germany v Finland
Netherlands v Brazil
Hong Kong v Latvia
Saturday November 7
Afternoon Session (1300 local time, 1200 GMT)
4x Second Round
Evening Session (1900 local time, 1800 GMT)
4x Second Round
Sunday November 8
Afternoon Session (1300 local time, 1200 GMT)
Quarter-Finals
Evening Session (1900 local time, 1800 GMT)
Semi-Finals & Final
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