Following his dramatic win over Joe Perry today, world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan has now been speaking out about the state of the game and how he feels that it is currently heading in the wrong direction…
This article in the Guardian quotes O’Sullivan as saying:
On breaking his cue:
“It was fun. I really went to town on it,”
“I wanted an excuse not to play. After I’d done it, I thought: is this wise? I love the game but I don’t really care whether I play or not. I don’t want to feel like that for the rest of my life.”
On the circuit:
“I think it [the circuit] should be privatised. It needs someone like Barry Hearn, someone more up-to-date in the modern world.With the people running snooker now, it seems to be going backwards. There isn’t the buzz there used to be. It’s only the BBC holding it together. It’s dying unless something happens.. This isn’t the tournament it was when Benson & Hedges were sponsoring it. It’s not so much fun.It needs Barry Hearn to come in and do with it what he’s done for darts.”
And the BBC quotes go even further:
“I feel like I’m in a sport that has had its good days and is on a downward spiral,”
“It needs someone with entrepreneurial skills like Simon Cowell who is in the modern world and more dynamic.”
“If someone like Barry Hearn came in and took over the game and started doing with snooker what he has done with darts and made it interesting and lively that might make coming to tournaments and [my] enthusiasm to play a little bit different,”
“It’s quite uninspiring coming to tournaments,”
“I still enjoy playing but sometimes I wonder do I want to go to Ireland for 30 grand or go to China for 40 grand or Bahrain and there are two people in the crowd.
“I remember the good days when it was fun going to tournaments and now it doesn’t feel like fun.
“The people who are running snooker seem to be going backwards. Nothing seems to be happening and it just feels boring and the sport is dying.
“There are little rules brought in like penalising players for conceding when you don’t need snookers.
“You can’t help thinking that whoever is making these decisions are killing the sport and stopping the entertainment.
“I love the game and I’m in great shape physically and mentally, but I’ve got to the stage where I don’t really care if I play or not.
“I don’t want to go through the rest of my life like that so I’ve got to make a decision on what I want to do.”
Do you agree with him? Let me know what you think…
I partly agree with him. The circuit has to modernize. For example, the governing body, World Snooker, should listen better to what the players have to say, otherwise they’ll be revolting, just like what happened in darts a decade ago. I remember Higgins saying something similar, perhaps a little less agitated than Ronnie.
Some ideas:
- The tournaments should be spread more across the world, with perhaps the World Championships held in China each two years.
- There really REALLY should be a ranking tournament in Germany to help cure snookers apparent English Supremacy Syndrome
- As O’Sullivan stated, snooker tournaments really should retain sponsorship at all costs, otherwise the game will die.
- World Snooker need a decent website. The current website, even though it looks ok, really lacks features; the live scoring hardly ever works, news items lack criticism, there’s not a lot of interesting info to be found. All events should be made available via live broadcast and there should be an extensive player database with statistics to make it more interesting.
- TV registration could be a bit less static, perhaps they could camera’s in the pockets and a cool floating camera that moves across the arena. People dig silly stuff like that!
As for Ronnie, well, he’d better use his genius on and off the table and make it a better snooker world for all instead of always being cocky. Still, to most, including me, he’s the only reason to watch snooker, and that’s not a good thing. There should be quite a few more Ronnies to save the game.
Jens