Ken tells O’Sullivan to shut it
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 World Championship bid against young pretender Kyren Wilson in Sheffield yesterday, racing into an early lead in the final.
But the five-time champ courts controversy and has upset many professionals at snooker’s premier global 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.”
And that has angered Doherty, one of the most popular ambassadors for the green baize game.
“No other top sportsmen in their sport would disrespect their fellow professionals like Ronnie has done,” he said. “You
wouldn’t get a Roger Federer or a Tiger Woods doing it, or a Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi.
“I thought he crossed the line there and I didn’t like it. That’s completely wrong and that irritated me.
“I want to speak out and defend those guys. I think I have to say something to take a stand for those guys.
“A lot of these lowerranked players don’t have a voice, nobody is putting a camera in front of them.
“Ronnie’s an inspiration to a lot of those guys, so to slag them off 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 dramatic 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 threetime Crucible winner Mark Williams accused the Rocket of “slagging off” snooker for no reason.