Barry Hearn names top five darts players of all time but fears he’ll be ‘slaughtered’ for controversial opinions

BARRY HEARN fears he will be “slaughtered” after listing his top five darts stars of all-time.

The veteran businessman, 76, was chairman of the PDC from 2001 until 2021 when his son Eddie took over.

Barry Hearn has named his all-time top five darts starsGetty

Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld have made the top fiveNews Group Newspapers Ltd

He has overseen a number of eras in darts – which has gone from strength to strength in recent years.

And before naming his top five, he explained the criteria by which he made his decision.

Speaking on The Barry Hearn Show podcast, he said: “Well, I got slaughtered when we talked about the snooker players because, of course, everyone’s got an opinion.

“They’ve got favourites and certain players have done things at certain times that would put them into that category and they weren’t in mine. And so that caused some controversy.

“But you have to remember I’m looking at things from a perspective of sustainability, from consistency, from delivering over a period of time, most of the time.”

Hearn then detailed each player and why they made the list, with first place going to 16-time world champion Phil Taylor – who dominated the sport through the late 1990s and 2000s.

He said: “When I look at darts there is a battle in my mind between the great Phil Taylor – who’s about to hang up his darting boots after an amazing career where he’s changed the face of the sport on his own – and Michael van Gerwen, who stepped into Phil’s boots and did a fabulous job.

“I’m gonna nudge it towards Phil, just on the basis of how many years he dominated.

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Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson are two more names in Hearn’s listAFP

“He threw huge averages consistently throughout his career and [won] sixteen world titles. You can’t ignore that.

“So despite the quality that is out there today, I’m still giving the number one spot to Phil Taylor.”

He then named Dutch star Van Gerwen in second place due to his “decade of dominance” and “averages that we humans don’t even dream of”.

Then Hearn started to struggle as he weighed up names such as Gerwyn Price and Peter Wright, before he eventually landed on Scot Gary Anderson – a two-time world champion.

He said: “He’s won a couple of world championships and he’s won consistently over the last 10, 12, 15 years.”

Fourth went to Raymond van Barneveld as Hearn continued: “Now I’m getting into the multi competitive layers.

“I’m gonna have to put Raymond van Barneveld in there for his consistency over the years.

“He won BDO titles; PDC titles and was involved in some of the classic games with Phil Taylor.”

For the final spot, Hearn gave an honourable mention to Eric Bristow – who won five WDF world titles and is a legend of the game.

Reigning world champion Luke Humphries also narrowly missed out despite being discussed.

That is because Hearn feels Luke Littler – at the age of just 17 – already makes it into fifth spot.

He said: “I’m a big fan of Luke Littler. I think this kid is gonna be special. And I’m gonna probably spoil him by elevating him to number five already.

“By the way, that puts him above Luke Humphries, and I’m not sure that’s fair either because Luke looks as if he’s gonna be a dominating force in the next few years.

“But, as of today, when I judge Luke Littler, I don’t just judge him as a great darts player. I judge him as a person that has changed the sport, elevated it.”

He continued: “What we’re seeing with Luke Littler is going to be followed by other kids because I see Wessel Nijman and Mike de Decker coming through too. These kids can play and they’re knocking in 110 averages. The depth in talent is scary.

“But Luke Littler, even in his less than a year on the tour, has made more of an impact commercially than any other player I have seen during my 20-odd years.

“So I’m gonna spoil the young man by making him my number five, and I’m going apologise to Luke Humphries because I think on an achievement basis, he looks like he could dominate for years to come.

“So they can criticise me now for getting it wrong. And we’ll do this in 12 months and see where it’s changed.”

Luke Littler is already in Hearn’s top five despite this being his debut year on the PDC tourGetty