Rocket needs to shut up – he has crossed the line
Former world champion Ken Doherty believes Ronnie O’Sullivan should shut up and just concentrate on letting his snooker do the talking.
The Rocket kicked off his seventh World Championship final yesterday against young pretender Kyren Wilson in Sheffield.
But the five-time world champion courted controversy and has upset some professionals at snooker’s premier tournament this year.
O’Sullivan branded many of his fellow professionals as “half-decent amateurs” who are “so bad” and “poor”, before predicting: “I would have to lose an arm and a leg to fall out of the top-50”.
That has angered Doherty, widely-regarded as one of the most-popular ambassadors for the green-baize game.
“No other top sportsman would disrespect their fellow professionals like Ronnie has done,” stressed Doherty.
“You wouldn’t get a Roger Federer or a Tiger Woods doing it, or a Christiano Ronaldo or a Lionel Messi in their sports. Or a Dan Carter or a Brian O’Driscoll in rugby.
“I thought he crossed the line there and I didn’t like it. That’s completely wrong and that irritated me.
“Don’t slag off your sport, and be humble.
“I want to speak out and defend those guys. I think I have to say something to take a stand for those guys.
“They’re just trying to earn a living. They’re not a piece of dirt on his shoe. It’s wrong.
“A lot of these lower-ranked players don’t have a voice, nobody is putting a camera in front of them.
“It’s a duty of care for me to say something as a player and as an ambassador for snooker.
“He’s an inspiration to a lot of those guys, so to slag them off like that was morally wrong and disrespectful. I just didn’t like it.”
Three-time world champion Mark Selby accused O’Sullivan of being “disrespectful to me and the game” after his heartbreaking 17-16 semi-final loss.
O’Sullivan hammered a few balls around the table at 16-14 down, but produced a stunning comeback to triumph.
And fellow three-time Crucible winner Mark Williams accused the Rocket of “slagging off” snooker for no reason.
Doherty added: “There’s no doubt he’s the greatest player to have ever played the game and I love watching him when he’s playing.
“It’s great that he’s in this year’s final. It’s great for the sport, but I just don’t like it when he slags off other players.
“I really don’t know half the time what he talks about, it’s very strange and bizarre.
“He’s been disrespectful to the other players. To say his fellow professionals were useless and not even up to the standard of good amateurs, that wasn’t nice.
“At the end of the day he is an ambassador for the game. A lot of those players look up to him.”
Victory for O’Sullivan in this year’s showpiece best-of-35 frame final would see him equal Steve Davis’ six world titles and better seven-time winner Stephen Hendry’s record of 36 ranking crowns.
And if the 44-year-old did win his first Crucible crown since 2013, then Doherty has no doubts O’Sullivan will try to chase down Hendry’s seven world titles.
“He’s definitely interested in going level with Steve Davis and beating Stephen Hendry’s seven world titles, without a shadow of a doubt,” stressed Doherty. “He could play until he’s 50. He can probably win a couple more world titles the way he’s playing.
“He’s broken pretty much every record anyway and everybody regards Ronnie as the greatest-ever, but let’s be honest, some of the stuff he comes out with is completely bonkers.
“But he is a genius as a player and is fantastic for the game. He’s given so much entertainment to everybody over the years, it’s been incredible. He’s been our top player for nearly 30 years.”