Asked how to avoid a recurrence, Ding, who had no connection to the scandal, argued for a change in mindset.

“We have nearly 20 players aged between 18 and 25, so hopefully they can keep learning and still be doing well after 25,” world No 7 Ding said. “I think that is the right way to go.

“In China, they love to see players grow up so quick. They want to see them at 20 years old winning everything, and it’s too much pressure for the young guys. People always ask me what to suggest, and I say ‘just be happy’.

“These guys have to practise all day, and there’s no fun in that. To be happy is important. I went through that, and practice is your job, but you need to find other good things in your life.”

Speaking during the Cazoo World Championship in Sheffield, where Si Jiahui’s exit at the weekend extinguished China’s hopes, Ding suggested the next crop of talent could learn from their disgraced predecessors.

“Young players should learn from school and there should be a balance between education and practice,” Ding said.

“I didn’t have many chances to watch world-class tournaments, but now they have top tournaments in China to watch. It’s quite easy to improve yourself. They don’t need to practise for eight, 10 hours [a day] … they can do six hours then rest or learn in school.

“In Chinese sports, they [often start early] then they don’t have knowledge for life outside. Then if you don’t continue in sport, you know nothing in the world. That’s a disaster.”

Three of the 10 banned Chinese – Yan, Zhao and Chen Zifan – had been based at Victoria’s Academy in Sheffield, the snooker centre run by Victoria Shi, who is also manager to several of her native country’s players.

Shi declined the Post’s invitation to discuss how her academy could try to steer her charges away from the conduct that caused the downfall of the banned 10, saying that “we just want to move on” from the hurt caused by the devastating verdicts last June.

There was never any suggestion that Shi knew anything of the wrongdoing and she has condemned the 10, while advocating more education throughout the sport in the form of discussions and anti-gambling lectures.

Which snooker players were banned for match fixing, and for how long?

Ding, too, has an academy in Sheffield. Does the 37-year-old feel a responsibility, as a trailblazer for Chinese players, to guide the latest hopefuls arriving to start a new life in Britain, speaking little English?

“Yes,” he said. “They understand. I tell them [about] daily routine, and about life … after six months or one year, you can see the payback.”

Snooker’s appeal in China was not diminished by the fixing storm, according to Ding, who said the excitement seen at tournaments in the country since it reopened after Covid-19 shows “people are still interested”.

But he hopes to see a cultural shift.

“Life balance is important,” Ding said. “Some people don’t understand, especially parents. They love to see their child in a quarter-final, semi, final, winning, then they think it will always be like that, but it’s impossible.

“In the UK, some of the great players only won three or four tournaments in their whole career. Winning them is difficult, so it’s too much to expect from the young ones when they’re 10, 12 years old, then they feel too much pressure when they’re 16, 17 years old.

“Then they leave their parents, leave the [bubble] they are in, and they lose themselves. They don’t know enough. They don’t have a normal, balanced life.”