ROCKET FOR BEEB
SNOOKER legend Steve Davis can’t understand why Ronnie O’Sullivan is always snubbed for BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
‘The Rocket’ claimed a 19th Triple Crown event success and a seventh UK Championship title on Sunday night.
Five-time world champion O’Sullivan beat Mark Allen 10-6 at York’s Barbican Centre but, after 26 years of brilliance on the table and no shortage of controversy off it, he has never been on the shortlist for the annual award. Davis (below) finished in the top three five times in the 1980s while Stephen Hendry came second to Paul Gascoigne in 1990.
This year’s awards take place on Sunday and Davis said: “Ronnie is the best British sportsman currently. “I implore the people who choose the nominees for Sports Personality of the Year to put him in the mix. I think he could be a very popular winner. “Outside snooker there are people who don’t see it as being at the same level as golf and tennis – but we do.
“He hasn’t ever even been on the shortlist and that’s just crazy.”
O’Sullivan, who has pulled out of this week’s Scottish Open, was left still basking in the glow of one of the most satisfying nights of his career.
He said: “To hear Steve Davis, my hero growing up, and Stephen Hendry, who became my hero, saying I’m the greatest is hard to believe. I take it as the biggest compliment anyone could pay me.”