PDC chairman Barry Hearn on tonight’s Home Tour: ‘Hopefully it gives people something to look forward to’

World champion Peter Wright will headline the opening round tonight

Professional Darts Corporation chairman Barry Hearn hopes the Home Tour can provide some entertainment among the sporting shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

World champion Peter Wright will headline the opening round on Friday night, with 32 consecutive evenings of competitive matches planned, as PDC tour card holders compete from home.

Hearn said on talkSPORT: “Maybe that will just put a little smile and give us something to look forward to. It is 32 consecutive days as a minimum starting point, three hours a night.

“(It is) a little bit of live sport, which is not going to be anywhere near the standard we are used to watching. This is from people’s homes but they are trying and they are good blokes and they will give us 100 per cent effort.

“These guys are sportsmen and they are self-employed. They are not getting a fortune but they are getting an appearance fee because we are experimenting. The 32 winners when we go forward, hopefully we can do a bit more.

“It is going to be fun, it is not going to be perfect. But what you will see is real, competitive sport.”

Two-time world champion Gary Anderson is set to miss out on the action due to wifi issues at home preventing him from streaming his matches.

But Hearn has not ruled out him being able to feature, adding: “We’ve got a couple like that, we are trying to help, we are talking about boosters. There are technical things we can do.

“Michael Van Gerwen has just had a new baby so his house is in turmoil too.” PA