Gary Anderson: In darts Champions League, everyone’s gunning for Cross

The talent’s that good now, it’s very hard to see past Michael van Gerwen in any tournament, including the Champions League in Brighton.

And then you have the current World Champion Rob Cross too.

I’m very interested to see what his next two years are going to be like because kind of came out of nowhere and won that, now everyone is gunning for him.

Darts – William Hill World Darts Championship – Alexandra Palace, London – 3/1/16
Gary Anderson celebrates with the trophy after victory in the final
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We have to see how he handles that.

For me, any tournament I play in I’ll fancy winning it. If I turn up with the right head on and throw the kind of darts I was throwing last weekend in an exhibition, no one will touch me. Everything I looked at, I was hitting.

It was just one of those things. The next day could be the complete opposite.

Mensur Suljovic beat me in the Champions League final last year, but I’m just going to turn up, play the games and if I’m playing well hopefully I’ll get to it again.

LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 20: Mensur Suljovic of Austria celebrates winning his first round match against Jermaine Wattimena of Holland during the 2016 William Hill PDC World Darts Championships on Day Four at Alexandra Palace on December 20, 2015 in London, England. (Photo by Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images)

We’ll see what happens, just as long as the final is not against Mensur again!

Would I like another World title? Yes! Would it bother me if I didn’t do it? No. The World Championship was the reason I came over to the PDC from the BDO because I’d never played Phil Taylor up until 2007.

That’s when he was producing some top class stuff and I absolutely smashed him all over the place.

But that’s why I wanted to come over to test myself against Taylor and the other boys. I reckon it’s the best move I’ve ever made, because the PDC does toughen you up.

BLACKPOOL, ENGLAND – JULY 25: Darts are seen bedded in the board during the first day of the Stan James World Match Play Darts Championships at Winter Gardens on July 25, 2004 in Blackpool, England. (Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)

Champions League on the Beeb

It’s good that this is on the BBC. A lot of the tournaments are on Sky Sports, but now we are kind of on ITV a bit more as well.

So that’s BBC, ITV and Sky, that’s more or less everything covered now.

Before it was just Sky and people watching normal television couldn’t see Phil Taylor and the likes play darts, so it’s good for them now we are on BBC.

It’s also great for the kids to watch us play darts, I’m a great believer that the maths involved in playing darts is good for kids. It can’t do them any harm in school.

With Paddy Power giving away £50k to the fans if there’s a nine-darter too, it would be great to hit and share it among the crowd. But they’ll owe me a coffee or something stronger at the end of the night for doing it!

Darts – SINGHA Beer Grand Slam of Darts – Wolverhampton Civic Hall – 8/11/15
Gary Anderson celebrates victory during the second group match
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Finishing will decide it all

With the World’s top eight in it, there’s no feeling your way into the tournament.

I quite like a round-robin situation because you can get beaten first game and still win the competition, a bit like the Grand Slam of Darts. I’ve got Daryl Gurney first game, so we’ll see what happens.

I’m in with four big players in Daryl Gurney, Dave Chisnall and Michael van Gerwen, so it’ll come down to who finishes the best.

If everyone’s scoring well, it actually becomes a case of who misses the least.

Whoever’s going to make the mistakes and miss, that’s what’s going to cost them the match because we are all heavy scorers.