Gray selected for World Cup

The Matchroom event takes place at York Hall, Bethnal Green, from June 13-18 and Baston-based Gray will be playing in the England A team alongside Darren Appleton.

The England B team will consist of Daryl Peach and Imran Majid.

It will be Gray’s third appearance in the event and he has twice finished runner-up - with Peach in Rotterdam in 2008 and at York Hall in 2015.

“It will be interesting playing with a new partner this year,” said Gray, “and obviously they don’t come much better than Darren Appleton. So hopefully we can give a strong performance.”

The event is all shown live on Sky Sports and England A face India in the first round in the evening session on Tuesday June 13.

The tournament has a prize fund of $250,000 with the winners netting a cool $60,000.

Gray is the resident professional at Bourne Snooker Centre and is currently ranked number one in England and number eight in Europe. He is also a three-times Mosconi Cup winner.