World Snooker Championship stars discuss SIX major rule changes to modernise sport including dress code

SNOOKER stars have discussed six huge rule changes to improve the game.

Shaun Murphy, Neil Robertson, Mark Selby and Barry Hawkins, who have six titles between them, were asked for their thoughts on a range topics from shot clocks to fouls.

The Magician has once again stood by that entirely to reward “attacking”; and stop “frames dragging on and becoming a snoozefest”;.

and Robertson wanted a limit to stop rivals trying to come back from the impossible as the Aussie claimed it does not entertain fans and is poor for TV.

But Hawkins felt getting rid of them would be axing a “tactical”; side of the game.

The Hawk was also in favour of keeping the miss rule and not introducing a shot clock.

But Murphy wanted deliberate misses out of the sport, Selby wanted a limit on fouls and demanded it leading to a ball in-hand situation.

He explained to Sporting Life: “If you can see a red directly and if you take that risk and you try to come off a cushion to hit another ball, if you miss then the opponent gets the ball in-hand.

“That would speed the game up massively. It would be a massive win for snooker, whether the authorities would I don’t know but it’s a big change, I’d love to see.”;

Murphy also wants sweeping changes and is as the game is becoming “boring and we’re an entertainment industry”;.

He said: “Matches going onto 12am or 1am in the morning is the biggest indicator we need a shot clock.

“I’m not talking about a shootout style in every event, but we need some sort of time limit.

“Players averages approaching 30 seconds and above. It’s just boring.

“Who wants to watch a player take 30 seconds to play a shot? It’s too slow.”;

Selby and Robertson agreed that it could prove too challenging to implement.

It is a similar issue with toilet breaks with all four players agreeing that it is used as “gamesmanship”; to “relieve pressure”;, but they were unsure how to stamp it out.

Asked what else they would change, Robertson incredibly wanted a huge change to the dress code.

He said: “Over the last six months I have got really addicted to golf, I have seen all the clothes line and footwear have progressed massively over the years and in snooker we should definitely do that.

“It’s not the most comfortable thing to wear. I can wear a suit, it doesn’t bother me too much but a lot of other players are really uncomfortbale.

“We’re looking at targeting a young generation my son, for example, he is not looking at a player and thinking, ‘I want to wear a waistcoat and bow tie one day’.

“We need to progressing with these things and not staying still. If you stay still you regress.

“For the World Championship and Triple Crown events, keep the bow tie and waistcoat like do with white clothing but other events, we need to modernise massively.”;