Barry Hearn replies to Ronnie O’Sullivan’s rant – Snooker Update
For the past couple of days, especially after a superb finish of the 2012 World Snooker Championship, it looks like a new verbal brawl has begun between the four-time World Snooker Champion from England, Ronnie O’Sullivan and the World Snooker Chairman Barry Hearn over the increased number of snooker events in the calendar.
The reigning World Snooker Champion believes there should not be so many snooker events in a season because the players cannot get time for their families. While the snooker chief wants to make every single player a millionaire by filling the calendar with more tournaments so that the potters can take part in them and earn a lot of money for them.
Recently after the 2012 World Snooker Championship, O’Sullivan said that he feels the players are being blackmailed by the number of tournaments. Meanwhile, Hearn laughed on his remarks and insisted that the system allows the players to choose and play whichever tournament they want. World Snooker does not have any strict policies to restrict potters to take part in every event.
While speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Hearn said, “I love Ronnie to bits. But will I sit down and talk to him about this? Well, let's just say Ronnie is renowned for many things, but logic isn't one of them. I have a duty to the game as a whole, my task was to fill up the schedule with tournaments every week and I've done that.”
The snooker chief added, “Nothing in the contract says you've got to play in all of them, however. Tiger Woods picks and chooses which golf tournaments he plays in. I think Ronnie should do the same. What we don't want is players entering then pulling out. And if people pull out they will be fined.”
This verbal brawl began when Hearn added some more events in the schedule which already seems quite full of tournaments. According to O’Sullivan, adding more snooker events in the already filled year will only trouble the players. He reckoned that the potters will not be able to spare time for their families as right now they have only Christmas holidays.
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