Luke Humphries admits ‘I don’t care’ as he responds to Wade and Anderson | Other | Sport
Darts world champion Luke Humphries has graciously accepted praise from stalwarts James Wade and Gary Anderson, but insisted he “doesn’t care” if the media do not give him the same attention as Luke Littler.
The 29-year-old has reached the World Grand Prix semi-final and is thriving in his status as world No 1, winning the Grand Slam of Darts, Players Championship Finals, World Championships, World Cup and World Matchplay in the last 12 months alone.
Those performances led Wade to claim that only Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen were better than Humphries, sparking a debate about his snub of teenage sensation Littler, 17.
When quizzed about the matter, the world champion said: “If they put me in the news outlets more, it could be a lot worse for me, maybe depress me even more. I don’t really care that much, to be honest.”
He then added: “It’s nice that I take away what I’ve seen in the last few days, which is two great professionals, who I look up to, have given me credit and that makes me feel good inside.
“If you did tell me 10 years ago Gary Anderson and James Wade would be saying incredible things about me, I would’ve laughed at you, it would have been an absolute joke for me.
“I’m just trying to build the sport into a good place and there’s plenty of great players out there, I just want to be a part of that.”
Despite having a long history of bickering, Wade found common ground with Anderson, as the Scot, 53, defended Cool Hand for being overlooked in favour of Littler by the media.
And Humphries joked: “If you’ve got Gary Anderson and James Wade agreeing with each other, I feel like I could create world peace!
“Their opinions are obviously really amazing and it filled me with great confidence. Those two absolute legends of the game, everyone knows I’m really good friends with James and I get on well with Gary.
“But I know I’m not influenced by what they’ve said, I guess they just want a lot more from me. I’ve watched James’ one [interview] yesterday and he said I could be the second [best player in darts history]… well, probably not. Phil and Michael will always be above me, but he has a point.
“It’s been a great journey for me and I’m just happy to win titles, I don’t look into too much what the media say. Sometimes the media can be cruel, not people in this room but the papers and the clickbait headlines.”
Humphries is back in action at the World Grand Prix on Sunday and he will be hoping to prove the pair right when he takes on Ryan Joyce for a place in the final in Leicester.
