Higgins had been banned from competing in the first two ranking tournaments of the 1987/1988 season, and this was the first year since the rankings were instituted in &lt;a href="Snooker%20world%20rankings%201976/1977"&gt;1976/1977&lt;/a&gt; that he was not among the top 16. In May 1988, Cliff Thorburn had two ranking points deducted for "bringing the game into disrepute" due to failing a drugs test at the 1988 British Open. Thorburn had been found to have small traces of cocaine in his urine sample. Thorburn was also barred from the first two ranking events of the 1988/1989 season as part of his punishment. Without the deduction of the two points, Thorburn would have been ranked a place higher, at fifth.