There was controversy when Alex Higgins was invited to participate, despite being banned from snooker for the whole of the &lt;a href="Snooker%20season%201990/1991"&gt;1990/1991 season&lt;/a&gt; for punching an official at the 1990 World Championship, as the World Masters was not a WPBSA-run event. A number of players, among them reigning world champion Stephen Hendry, were unhappy with Higgins' inclusion and threatened to boycott the event if he appeared in it. Higgins voluntarily withdrew, and Hendry took his place in the tournament.