BARRY Hearn has questioned the authority with which Olly Croft has turned down the PDC's £1m offer to buy the British Darts Organisation and inject an additional £1m into the grass roots of the game.
The Professional Darts Corporation's Chairman made the offer in an open letter to the BDO's shareholders - its 66 member counties - and directors on Tuesday, but quotes from Croft, whose position within the BDO is described on its official website as 'Founder', reject the offer out of hand.
Hearn however, believes that Olly Croft as a Director of the BDO has a formal duty to take the PDC offer to his shareholders (the counties) to make the final decision.
"I don't believe Olly Croft is in a position to turn down the offer," Hearn said. "The BDO claim they have a democratically elected board and a county structure that form their shareholders - so why don't they go through the proper procedures to discuss this offer?
"Croft's claims are laughable: the public don't buy his ideas about having the two best tournaments in the World and I would ask him to prove one recent instance of where the BDO has supposedly ploughed its profits back in to darts for the benefit of its players.
"The PDC subsidises tournaments for the benefit of our own players: we offer bigger prize money, more opportunities for television exposure, attract bigger crowds and stage superior events.
"These aren't even boastful claims - anyone who has seen the two products will know they are accurate statements.
"The PDC wants to preserve darts long in to the future. The fact that the top players broke away from the BDO in 1992 and players continue to desert them for the PDC shows that the BDO has failed to do this in the past and is failing to do so again.
"I'm interested in the response of the counties to both the PDC's offer and Olly Croft's claims. They are the real decision makers and we have already heard from some of them that they are fed up with the way their Inter-Counties system is run with ridiculous schedules and heavy costs for scant rewards.
"It is up to the Counties to accept or reject this offer and I am happy to personally sit down with all 66 of them to discuss our thoughts.
"But I'm afraid that through his statement Olly Croft has again proved himself to be out of touch with the modern game and incapable of taking darts forward, at either professional or amateur level."
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