Has Ronnie O`Sullivan got a point?

Once again one of the best sportspeople Britain has ever produced was ignored by BBC on the SPOTY (Sports Personality of the Year) awards. And the man himself, 5-times World Snooker Champion Ronnie O`Sullivan, said the game was "too cheap to be given importance", arguing whether bringing players like him for small qualifiers to play players that "will never be good enough" builds anything for the game. O`Sullivan says "Barry Hearn has done an amazing job with Snooker", and in fact the game's never spent so much time on TV and the prize money has trebled since he took charge of World Snooker in 2010, but "what people want to see are top players and there could be more invitational tournaments like the Champion of Champions and The Masters in the calendar", though "top players don't mind playing a couple" of the 128 men events.
O`Sullivan said it after beating a former champion by 6-2 at the Last 16 stage of the UK Championship, and if he goes on to win the title (he's a big favourite now because of the way he's playing) he'll have won 3 out of the 4 Snooker tournaments BBC did broadcast in 2016. During O`Sullivan's post-match interview in the BBC studio, Steve Davis said "what's it worth having all that TV time, giving so much excitement, if it's not recognized".

You might not agree with everything, but in my opinion they've got a point. On the paper the 128 men-format sounds great, giving the opportunity for everyone to get involved and play on the tour for £10m pounds every season, but what really happens is very different.
Firstly, you'll never make all the 128 players turn up at one tournament and you'll always have a few amateurs entering them, even in a Triple Crown tournament like the UK Championship. Of course these amateurs only get an invite if they've done something big in amateur competitions, and defending champion Neil Robertson losing to amateur Peter Lines in the first Round of this year's UK Championship tells that these "amateurs" can play. But when you reflect, what's that chance you're giving new professionals if they've got to play the likes of Ronnie O`Sullivan, Neil Robertson and Mark Selby in first round's? How are they supposed to keep their tour card after two season if they keep getting draws like that? It's obvious that in 2 years, playing about 40 competitions, they will win a couple, but it's always gonna be difficult to break through and earn their money. Maybe letting the top players start one or a couple rounds later is good not just for the public, but for the new players coming through either.
Having a match between a 5-times World Champion and the World Number 100 in qualifiers, without TV cameras and where fans can just turn up and watch for free, doesn't add anything to the top player, neither to the low ranked/amateur player (whom whatever happens will be booking his flight back at the end of the day), and nor to the sport's status in terms of making it worth to appear in shows like SPOTY.

You can't deny Snooker is in a much better place now than it was years ago before Barry Hearn - when in fact, we had most tournaments inviting only about 32 players. But what can be made then to grow the status of Snooker even more?
Well, I think there could be made an investment in a "secondary tour" like other sports do, and then you'd have a secondary Ranking to justify amateurs who get invites once players on the main tour withdraw. Also, having the top players pre-qualified for the "main venue stages" of the tournament will make low ranked players battle between themselves to climb the rankings and earn matches against top players, that would give the newcomers a better chance to earn money from the game. Of course that doesn't means protection for the top players, as it already is now, you could not award ranking points for players defeated in their first match, whether it's Round 1 or Last 32, that'd make the top players careful to keep their Ranking positions.

However, World Snooker is clearly going in the right direction and the game's never been better, whether it's enough remembered in TV awarding shows or not. Many sports that may have more "charm" than Snooker would swap it for having as much time as Snooker has on TV, and viewing figures half as high.

More importantly, the Barbican, in York, is seeing the UK Championship getting to it's business end and although Ding Junhui, Neil Robertson, Judd Trump and a few other big names have gone out, the likes of Ronnie O`Sullivan, Shaun Murphy, John Higgins and the World No1 Mark Selby are still looking for the title! To follow all news and results of the UK Championship, follow us on Facebook!