Former Paul Hunter Classic champion Ali Carter says it “seems strange” how recent winners of the tournament are considered “major” ranking event holders while previous winners are not.

The two-times World Championship finalist echoed the thoughts of world number seven Barry Hawkins who questioned on Twitter why the Paul Hunter Classic was now deemed a major ranking event when it hadn’t been given that ranking status in previous years gone by.

Carter won the Paul Hunter Classic in 2015 when he came through a deciding frame thriller to beat Shaun Murphy. At that time the event was considered as a minor ranking event on the snooker calendar and was part of the Players Tour Championship (PTC) series).

Since then, following the axing of the PTC series, the Paul Hunter Classic has remained part of the professional tour and is now deemed by World Snooker as a ‘major’ ranking event.

Recent winners Michael White and Kyren Wilson now have the tournament on their list of major ranking event wins.

Ali Carter. Picture by Monique Limbos

Carter decided to have his say on the matter on Tuesday night, speaking as a previous winner of the event and urged World Snooker supremo Barry Hearn to look into the matter.

He tweeted: “I won the PHC a couple of years back, same format same prize money and it was live on Eurosport yet it’s not on my ranking CV. Seems strange to me.

“It’s no biggie to me but after all, it’s supposed to be a fair playing field for everyone.”

He then tweeted a snooker fan and sarcastically said the situation made for “perfect sense”.

Hearn replied to Carter’s tweet saying he would give his concerns some thought.