Luke Littler will not appear on Peter Crouch's podcast as former England striker 'makes a stand'

Former Liverpool and England striker Peter Crouch is "making a stand" by not allowing darts sensation Luke Littler on his popular podcast.

Littler, 17, continues to inspire the next generation of darts players.

After reaching the World Championship final in January following wins over Raymond van Barneveld and Rob Cross, the teenager lifted his first senior ranking event at the Bahrain Masters with a victory over Michael van Gerwen.

The teenager is also winning at life off the oche. Earlier this month, he appeared on The Jonathan Ross Show alongside comedian Rob Beckett, singer-songwriter Raye and Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown.

But despite his ever-growing popularity in the UK and beyond, Littler will not appear on That Peter Crouch Podcast anytime soon.

Here's how the conversation about the topic of bringing Littler on the show as a guest played out between Crouch and fellow presenter Chris Stark, known for his stint on BBC Radio 1.

Crouch began, saying: “I’d love Luke Littler on, I’d like to speak to him. You have people who burst on the scene at 16. I was watching the darts, they had a list of people who have won things at 16.

"Obviously, it was before he lost [the final]. Martina Hingis, Wayne Rooney, they’ve all gone on to massive things. It would be interesting to see where his head’s at, at this age.”

Stark, however, believes he should be protected from the media glare.

“Do you think that’s part of the problem that he’s had this massive success at 16. He’s managed to get this far on his own without all the attention," he said.

“A lot of the criticism is that suddenly he’s out doing all interviews. Maybe the best thing we could do as a podcast is almost run a campaign to say, we are not going to get you on the podcast.

“We are going to be the only media outlet to say we don’t want Luke on because we want him to concentrate on his darts. This amount of weird attention that appears you must have seen it galvanise some players and people but it does have a negative effect as well."

Image credit: Getty

Stark added: "Maybe that’s we do with Luke. We give him a couple more years, win the Worlds at some point, then invite him on the podcast after that. Until then we operate a policy of everyone should leave Luke Littler alone.”

Crouch agreed with Stark. “I wouldn’t like it personally," he admitted. "At 16 I was miles off it. But we are making a stand, we do not want Luke Littler on the podcast!”

Back in December, after Littler beat Christian Kist and Andrew Gilding at the World Darts Championship, former world champion Gary Anderson criticised the media's treatment of Littler.

"I'm going to say this now, we had another youngster called Josh Rock that all you press and everything else have absolutely destroyed," he said.

"So if it ever goes t**s up with Luke, then give yourselves a pat on the back, because that's the way it's going. Let the boy play darts."

The Scot added: "I've been downstairs today, he's had cameras, zoom calls, Sky meetings. Let the boy play darts.

"He's had a great tournament, he's done well, but what happens if it goes Pete Tong now? You boys have ruined it, haven't you?

"So let the boy play darts, he's 16-years-old, playing well, and just like Josh Rock, a fantastic player, but you've knocked him back by two or three years."