The two warring factions of the darts world have announced they will stage a joint tournament later this year in Wolverhampton.

The Grand Slam of Darts will see the world’s best players from the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and the British Darts Organisation (BDO) battling for a £60,000 prize in what can be considered a breakthrough for the sport after years of bitter rivalry.

In recent years players associated with the BDO have jumped ship to the more lucrative PDC circuit,where players are guaranteed to be playing in front of television cameras, meaning bigger audiences globally, and ultimately more money. This has angered the BDO, who consider themselves the breeding ground for world talent, only for their players to be "poached" by the PDC, who they have at times considered  entertainment first, and sport second.

In February 2006, four-times BDO world champion Raymond van Barneveld defected to the PDC to face “bigger” stars in the darts world, and last month, at his first PDC World Championship, he defeated 13-time BDO world champion Phil Taylor in one of the best finals the PDC has seen.

Other rising stars have defected to the PDC this year, with 2006 BDO Lakeside World Championship winner Jelle Klassen (who defeated Barneveld in the final) following his countryman, while rising teenager Michael van Gerwin, who is just 17, has also made the move to the PDC along with Vincent van der Voort and Mervyn King.

The Grand Slam will feature 32 of the world's best players from the two circuits - all winners from the last two years - including BDO World Champion and England captain Martin Adams as well as losing finalist Phil Nixon, while Taylor, Klassen, Van Gerwin and John Part head up those from the PDC.

While the BDO's premier competition is aired on the BBC, the PDC's equivalent and their Premier League are regular features on Sky Sports, only available to subscribers to Sky and their sports packages, meaning many fans fail to see some of the best players in the world plying their trade.

As BBC is free with satellite in the UK, and also available in other countries, it would make sense for the television rights to go to the BBC to show the first Grand Slam, ensuring fans of both organisations, and indeed, darts generally will be able to see the world's best darts players in action under the same roof.

As yet there has been no indication of whether there will be any future joint tournaments beyond November's inaugural Grand Slam, but if it lives up to my expectations, then it could well become a mainstay of the darts calendar, perhaps further decreasing tensions between the two organisations and enhancing the reputation of darts as a spectacle.

Not everyone enjoys watching darts; some people even refuse to call it a sport. But as the PDC's World Championship final between Taylor and Barneveld, and the BDO's Lakeside World Championship final between Adams and Nixon showed at the beginning of the year - with both finals going to the wire with comebacks as thrilling as Liverpool's Champions League win against AC Milan - darts can be as dramatic as any other sport. And unlike outdoor sports where you have to experience the elements in open stadia, often with little atmosphere, darts is held in an indoor environment, with plenty of raucous support, without the wind and rain - and the future is bright for the popular pub game.

The Grand Slam of Darts is lined up to be played at Wolverhampton Civic Halls from 17-25 November.

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