Raymond van Barneveld has slipped down to 34th in the world rankings (Image: Getty)
Raymond van Barneveld believes ‘threw away’ his chances of a spot by crashing out early at the .
Anderson was in decent form heading into the worlds, narrowly losing out to in the Grand Slam of Darts semi-finals after seeing off in the group stage and in the knockout rounds.
But it quickly went south at the Ally Pally, where the Scotsman was swept 3-0 by Swedish underdog Jeffrey de Graaf. A good run would have left Anderson in a healthy position to clinch one of the eight exclusive Darts places, either as a top-four player or as one of the wildcards chosen by the .
But he is currently down in 15th, and the lowest-ranked player called up by the PDC is 11th-place Chris Dobey. Anderson suffered another first-round exit straight after the worlds, losing to Dimitri Van den Bergh at the World Masters last week.
And now, with the Darts opener on Thursday night just around the corner, Van Barneveld has rubbed salt in his old rival’s wounds.
“I think the PDC would have liked Gary Anderson,” he told . “But he threw away his chance at the last World Darts Championship when he was eliminated in the second round.”
Gary Anderson ‘threw away’ his Premier League Darts spot, according to Raymond van Barneveld (Image: Getty)
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Towards the back-end of last year, Anderson made it clear that he would not accept a place even if it was offered to him. “I’m at the age now where I’ve done it, got the t-shirt, thank you very much but no,” said the 54-year-old.
However, Gerwyn Price adopted a similar stance before backtracking and getting in as a wildcard. With £275,000 in prize money awarded to the winner, it is hard to say whether Anderson would have accepted the call-up like Price did.
The PDC’s eight-player list, which excluded sixth-ranked Jonny Clayton and reigning World Grand Prix champion Mike De Decker, sparked criticism from some corners. But 2007 world champion Van Barneveld is reluctant to call out those who are not necessarily in on merit.
“Let me be honest,” he said. “When it comes to guys who aren’t in that top eight, I haven’t been allowed to grumble myself. The last four or five times I competed, I wasn’t in the top eight or even top 16 in the world either, but got a wildcard from Sky Sports every time.”