Gerwyn Price has urged the PDC chiefs into a rethink following this week’s announcement that the World Darts Championship winner will bank a whopping £1million in prize money. Previously, the Ally Pally victor took home £500,000, with the change seeing a 100 per cent increase to the winnings.

While the likes of Luke Littler and Luke Humphries will be licking their lips together in anticipation of the bumper prize, Price isn’t convinced it’s the best move for the sport. Instead, the Welshman fears the World Championship will solely dictate who claims the world No.1 spot, rendering a lot of the other competitions - as far as the Order of Merit goes - meaningless.

As of next year, the winner of the Worlds will earn close to £800,000 more than the next biggest prize for a ranking darts event, the World Matchplay (£225,000). Reacting to the decision, Price said: “It’s only one tournament heavy. As bad as my last year has been, even though I’ve started well this year, I could go on to win the World Championship and be world number one.”

While Price did joke that he’d be more than happy for the £1m to be deposited into his own bank account, the Welshman hinted he’d prefer darts to have a points-based ranking system instead. The 2021 world champion added: “They’ve upped the Worlds [money], but they need to up everything else.

"Otherwise, they need to change the points. It’s not fair if someone wins the Worlds and they are world number one for two years. I will happily have the million. But they need to change the ranking points."

If the change was made, it would likely see darts switch from a ranking system that uses prize money to determine an Order of Merit to one similar to that used in tennis, where events have a certain amount of points on offer relative to the prestige of the tournament.

In the meantime, as far as Price is concerned, his attention will switch back to the £350,000 top prize on offer in the ongoing Premier League campaign ahead of night nine from Berlin.

The 40-year-old is well-placed heading into the second half of the campaign, with him currently occupying the final playoff spot. Price takes on Michael van Gerwen in his quarter-final tie on Thursday night.