Since 2007, when the PDC World Darts Championship was moved across London from the Circus Tavern to the Alexandra Palace, it has seen change so incredible that the three-week December event has come to bill itself as the ‘greatest show on Earth’, with absolutely no objections raised by anyone who’s been. It is an unrelenting wash of colour, singing, dancing, and unbridled joy not usually in evidence at any other sporting event – nor anywhere else, for that matter.
An estimated 4.8 million people watched the final of the 2024 World Championship, and about as many the following year, when it was won by then 17-year-old Luke Littler as he took one of the giants of the game, Michael van Gerwen, back to darts school in a very one-sided final. That achievement, plus making the final the year before as a kid still not old enough to drive, captured the imagination of so many people that darts arguably overtook rugby to become the second sport in the UK.
Dartsmania is not to be underestimated. Big darts events are played in front of crowds that would put some football matches to shame, as high as 20,000 for one World Series evening. Clubs have opened all over the UK and are so over-subscribed that there are waiting lists with kids as young as five wanting to go. Equipment, including not just the darts but the boards themselves, and even more expensive items such as the Scolia automatic counting system, have sold out, retailers reportedly struggling to keep up with demand.
Darts Around the World
It’s not just Great Britain that has lost its mind over seeing arrows land. A long and growing list of countries tells us that the love for this sport doesn’t stop at the English Channel. This year’s World Championship has seen players from Japan, India and Kenya claim surprise wins, sending their homelands into a frenzy. The African thrower, David Munyua, is now potentially set up for life because of a single win on the biggest stage of all.
A stroll through the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, is likely to take you past half a dozen darts clubs, with the Asian country having long since succumbed to the bug. Their best players are starting to win major international events now, too, and the magic of the three arrows is something the 60,000 registered players in Mongolia understand only too well. Clubs all over their country offer tournaments, proving that the love for darts is very much global.
Er, no. Not quite. Sadly.
In Almaty, Yelzhan Maulenov has worked tirelessly to popularise darts in the southern Kazakh city of some two million people, but he is one of the very few who play.
“I love darts, although I’m not so good at it,” he explained, smiling, clearly not troubled by the fact.
“But I have lost some of the belief that we can make the sport really popular in this country,” he added, this time visibly disappointed.
“We opened a darts club, and we had some players, but it was a small community of people just throwing at the board, wherever the darts landed. The appreciation for the sport just isn’t there; people still see it as a game for children to play at the fairground.”
How is Darts in Kazakhstan Shaping Up?
Occasional tournaments in Almaty, and the capital city, Astana, attract a handful of throwers, with some of the players from abroad. A tiny group of dedicated expats from England and the USA prop up the scene, much like the splint on a broken limb. Other spots are taken up by throwers from Russia, leaving only a few local people playing a sport that neighbouring Mongolia has taken to in quite some style.
For a Western-thinking, modern society, albeit one rightly proud of its traditions, scrambling its regional (and as yet unofficial) championship together, struggling to get the ten players needed, is a surprising reflection of the reality here. Despite a small hard-core group of ten or so throwers, a few of whom might reach semi-professional level if they lived in Europe, there is just so little going on in the country that could be seen as a darting culture. Nothing, it seems, is set to change any time soon.
Yelzhan’s Optimism for Darts in Kazakhstan
Yelzhan remains cautiously optimistic, partly because his team are starting to play online matches against teams from around the world, something he considers a crucial step in raising interest.
“I will do what I can. I enjoy being part of darts in Kazakhstan, however small it is, but I invested a lot of time believing that we only needed to tell people about how much fun playing darts is. It was never the intention for everybody in Almaty to drop everything and join us, but we always felt that we could introduce enough people, and that little by little, we would find players with enough talent eventually to play on the Asian tour, maybe to bring back medals and inspire others. From there, things would take care of themselves.
“We have two main problems with darts in Kazakhstan. The lack of new players coming through, and the lack of information available to tell people about the opportunities they have to participate. If we can share it better, I believe we will find some good players; there have to be some out there.”
Yelzhan is undoubtedly correct in this. It is inconceivable that a country of some 20 million has nobody with this talent. As to whether the people of Kazakhstan are willing to emulate their Mongolian neighbours and embrace darts as a sport, only time will tell.
It might be worth giving it a go, though. As the Kenyan veterinarian David Munyua reminded us, this sport creates heroes, legends, and even millionaires – sometimes overnight.