‘Quality needed — not quantity’

RONNIE O’Sullivan claims the current format of 128-player tournaments is “anarchy” and it’s preventing investment from China.

World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn rebuked the five-time world champion for recent comments in comparing the sport to a car boot sale and also suggesting it had lost respect in the public eye.

Yesterday, O’Sullivan saw off Matthew Stevens 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals of the Betway UK Championship in York.

Afterwards the 40-year-old used his post-match interview in the BBC Sport studio to offer further insight into ways he felt snooker could move forwards and embrace lucrative overseas sponsorship deals.

“China is where it is at. The money is there, they are ready to pump it into snooker, they just don’t want 128 players,” O’Sullivan said.

“It is anarchy when you go over there to compete in a 128-player tournament. You watch it and it is just too many players, too many people. They want the cream of the cream — and that is the top 32.”

O’Sullivan feels a trimmed-down version of the tour focusing on the elite players is the way forward.

“I always believe in more quality over quantity. That has been my philosophy in everything I do,” he said.

“I think we have a lot of quantity but very few quality events, so maybe skim them down and just make them all real proper set-ups.

“Maybe the tour is only strong enough at the moment to cater for 64 players to do that.

“That is probably where I think snooker could be improved, with probably more prestigious events like the Masters, the one they have just had in Guangzhou, a little bit like tennis with the ATP World Tour Finals where you just have your top eight.”