Ronnie O’Sullivan calls for controversial new snooker rule to get rid of ‘boring’ rivals

RAPID Ronnie O’Sullivan wants “boring” snooker stars who play in an “ugly” manner to be fined or booted out.

The Rocket, 48, made the point in a conversation about whether frames should be automatically ended when the trailing player requires snookers on the table.

PARonnie O’Sullivan slammed ‘boring’ snooker players[/caption]

This was a controversial proposal put forward by Shaun Murphy and Stephen Hendry during the UK Championship in York.

Despite it being a fundamental, age-old part of the sport, their argument is that frames should not just carry on regardless when someone who is behind needs fouls or bonus points.

Rack them up once someone has accumulated enough points – because “there’s so much dead time” in matches.

Gary Wilson dramatically came from behind in the final frame of the Scottish Open semi-finals on Saturday, managing to claw back multiple snookers to shock Zhou Yuelong on an extra black ball.

But when this idea was put to O’Sullivan on Eurosport, he reacted with fury.

The world No.1, one of the quickest and stylish people to ever hold a cue, said: “I think you should bring a rule out where you get rid of boring snooker players. That’s probably a better rule.

“Going for snookers can be fun. Boring snooker players who just drag the game out – I mean get rid of them!

“Fine them. Do something. Make them play snooker. Instead of just draining the life out of everybody.

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“Snookers are not my thing. I’d rather get on with the next frame. I think the game needs to be entertaining at the end of the day.

“Somebody getting snookers can be entertaining. But I think the bigger thing is just get rid of a lot of the really boring players that play horrible snooker. Ugly snooker.

“I can watch proper players all day long. I don’t have a problem with that.

“It’s just when you get really negative players. It’s hard to watch. I think that’s a more important thing to get rid of than people playing for snookers.

“We’re talking about something that’s not really important. It’s the way the game’s played that should be more important.”

O’Sullivan dismissed the idea of introducing shot clocks to speed up slow players, adding: “Just encourage people to play snooker properly.

“Instead of watching a lot of these players who I see who are just painful to watch.

“There’s a winning style. I mean play a winning game. Don’t play like that. You can’t win. What’s the point?

“Go and watch Stephen Hendry videos and try and emulate that. You might as well open a can of worms.

“If we’re going to talk about stuff, we might as well get down to the nitty gritty and get honest for a change.”