Mensur Suljovic caused a lot of trouble for his opponent Joe Cullen with his behavior on stage. The defeated Englishman even spoke publicly about cheating afterwards. Now he has renewed his allegations again.
It was one of the exciting things of the second round of the Darts World Cup: the duel between Mensur Suljovic and Joe Cullen. The outsider from Austria won 3-1, but his behavior attracted significant criticism.
Suljovic had provoked Cullen on stage. In addition to his usual slow throws, he cheered provocatively towards his followers after almost every leg he won, going to the end of the stage and thus delaying the game. His opponent reacted during the game by shaking his head and making derogatory gestures, and afterwards even described the mind games as cheating. “The old guard will say it’s part of the game, but however you put it, it’s cheating. This isn’t darts,” the 32nd-seeded Englishman wrote on social media afterwards.
Over the Christmas holidays, Cullen spoke to the local newspaper “Telegraph & Argus”. “Personally, I still think it’s a scam,” Cullen said. “I’ve always said this since I started playing: if you do something to intentionally influence the other player, then in my opinion that’s cheating.”
“He was even worse than usual,” Cullen says
He knew that Suljovic was a slow player. “But he was even worse than usual,” Cullen added. “He even got a warning from the referee, which I’ve never seen before, so I can point the finger at Mensur and say he was an a**hole.”
Caller Kirk Bevins sought dialogue with Suljovic at the beginning of the fourth set. The victorious Viennese explained after the game that Bevins had explained to him that he couldn’t celebrate after every leg and had made it clear to him where he was allowed to run.
At some distance, Cullen was particularly disappointed that he lost the game. “In the end he was very bad and that’s the most frustrating thing for me because I should have won that game easily,” said the Englishman. Suljovic only had an average score of almost 82 points on the board, Cullen was almost five points higher and also had a 20 percent better doubles rate. Nevertheless, he has to watch the decisive phase of the World Cup from home.
Meanwhile, Suljovic, who rejected the allegations following his victory, competes against Luke Littler in the evening (approx. 10.40 p.m./DAZN and Sport1). The world champion jumped to Suljovic’s side. “No, it’s not cheating. That’s just how he plays, he just plays slowly,” Littler had said.
Luca Wiecek is sports editor for WELT. He will be reporting from Alexandra Palace in London until New Year’s Eve.
