Mike De Decker has revealed that he ‘can’t listen’ to Dimitri van den Bergh’s interviews and has urged his pal to receive media training. De Decker has described his countryman’s media commitments as ‘terrible’.
De Decker is out of the World Darts Championship. The Belgian was defeated 3-1 by Luke Woodhouse in the second round.
Van den Bergh stormed into the third round with a 3-0 triumph over Dylan Slevin. De Decker will be keen to see how his friend fares in the next round, but seems unlikely to watch any of his interviews.
“I can’t listen to them. I like him to death but I think his interviews are terrible. Both before the match and after, after it is often much worse,” the 29-year-old told Viaplay of Van den Bergh.
“I’ve also said to him that it might be a good idea to do a day or two of media training, that they explain to you how to handle interviews. His interviews are often just not good.
“He tells all kinds of irrelevant things. With the Grand Slam, he suddenly conjured up a coin. That was then his ‘Lucky Penny,’ but nobody asks about that at all. Things like that. I just really can’t listen to it.”
De Decker was referencing an interview Van den Bergh gave to Sky Sports at the Grand Slam of Darts. Speaking after reaching the last-16 with a victory over Keane Barry, the 30-year-old said that he had retained a ‘lucky penny’.
“My manager said to me, ‘if you find a penny, pick up because it’ll give you luck’,” he revealed at the time. “I needed to win, so I put it in the back pocket of my pants and I won! Oh my God!”
Meanwhile, De Decker was frustrated by his defeat against Woodhouse in the second round at Alexandra Palace. He believed that his exit from the tournament was a matter of timing.
He said: “I tried everything at one point. I tried everything but it just wouldn’t work. Darts is a moment sport, even if I had to throw half an hour later I might have played like a top player, but that was not the case. Next World Championships I’m just not going to throw in I think.”
