'I'm your manager now' - Phil Taylor on Barry Hearn's hilarious phone call that led to perfect partnership

Phil Taylor, 16-time world champion and the most successful dart player of all time, can still smile smugly at the moment Barry Hearn became his manager. Not through a long conversation or an official proposal, but simply by deciding it himself.

The now-stopped Englishman tells snooker legend Stephen Hendry' s YouTube channel Cue Tips how Hearn approached him in his typical style.

‘I got a phone call, a strange number,’ said Taylor. ‘I went, “Hello?” He went, “Phil. Barry Hearn,” he said. “I said, “How are you Bazza? Alright, mate?” He said, “Yeah, I’m going to be your manager.” ‘I went, “Are you? When? He says, “Now.” I said, “What do you mean? I’ve already got a manager.”

‘He said, “No, I’ve give him some money, he’s gone. I’m your manager now.”

Taylor didn't have to think long about a contract. “He asked if I wanted a contract and I said not really. I’ll be dead straight with him. If I did an exhibition for 50 quid down the road I’d tell him that I owe him a tenner.

‘He was good as gold for me. He likes his penny’s worth out of you and he’s a workaholic.’

Barry Hearn became president of the Professional Darts Corporation in 2001 and led the association to unprecedented growth for nearly two decades. With Taylor as the showcase and figurehead of modern darts, Hearn built the circuit into a top global sport.

Taylor illustrates how important he was to the commercial success of the PDC at the time. He looks back on a conversation from 2013, just before the World Championship.

‘Last year Barry Hearn asked me to do another five years because Sky gave him £20m on the condition I’d stick around,’ Taylor told the BBC in December 2013. ‘So I’ll keep going, if I can.

‘I do feel a responsibility, to keep the sponsorship coming in and the interest up. Every interview, every article in the newspaper is based on me.

‘And it’s a lovely feeling when you’re up there and everyone is cheering you on. It’s something you get used to. It’s like love, ever so weird.’