Barry Hearn, the chairman of World Snooker, has claimed that Ronnie O’Sullivan has carried the sport and called on others to step up and share the load of the five-time world champion.
O’Sullivan is back in tournament action at the Shanghai Masters, which starts on Monday, for the first time since losing the world final to Mark Selby in May. The 38-year-old will get a hero’s welcome in China, even though he has often shunned playing there.
Hearn, 66, was speaking on the Ronnie O’Sullivan Show, in an interview to be shown on British Eurosport 2 this evening. “You [O’Sullivan] could do more,” Hearn said. “You could play more and put yourself out a bit for snooker, but you are getting better.
“But it is unfair you shoulder all the responsibility, that’s not right. You need other people out there. Some of them are beginning to try. In an ideal world I would have eight Ronnie O’Sullivans, all slightly different, with great ability on the table and notoriety off the table.
“The players can do more to promote the game, no question, and it frustrates me enormously. We had a meeting and I asked them who signed an autograph on the way here? No one put their hand up. And I told them it was because they weren’t doing their jobs properly.
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“There is a reticence, players are worried about embarrassing themselves. I don’t expect them to come out dressed as a clown, or punch someone to be famous. But I want emotion and interaction and for people to see players care, that it matters.”