SHAUN MURPHY has accused Ronnie O’Sullivan of not using his huge platform and following to improve the status of snooker.
Earlier this week, the pair clashed in the BBC studios when the Rocket spoke about feeling “no pressure”, lacking excitement for the game, having imposter syndrome and labelling snooker as “insignificant” in his life.
The Magician took the seven-time world champion to task on live TV by asking: ‘If you don’t enjoy it or like it as much as you say, why do you keep coming?’
O’Sullivan, 46, has more than half-a-million Twitter followers and is the Box Office name on the baize.
But after beating David Gilbert in the last 16 of the UK Championship, 2005 world champion Murphy said he is frustrated the world No.1 shows such disregard and indifference to the sport.
Murphy, 40, said: “It’s extremely irritating. Ronnie in particular has one of the biggest platforms in the world.
“I just wish he would use it to help make the game better.
“It does sometimes feel that most of the Tour are pulling in a similar direction and others – and he’s not on his own – are just out for themselves.”
Murphy, who plays Judd Trump on Thursday in York, is an active member of players’ board meetings.
He said: “I don’t have the CV of O’Sullivan, I don’t have what I assume must be an incredible amount of wealth.
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“He comes from an incredibly wealthy background and grew up in incredible wealth. Most of the Tour don’t come from that world.
“It’s okay for him and people like him who have cabinet after cabinet full of trophies to say how little the game means to them.
“But for the rest of us it means an awful lot because it not only feeds our life and looks after us today.
“I’m only 40 and I remember the village I grew up in and I know the life I’d have had but for this game that saved me from a life of complete anonymity. I’ll never ever forget that.”
In general, Murphy feels there is a “disgusting” amount of apathy on the World Snooker Tour towards trying to improve matters and raise its profile.
He added: “There are lots of players on Tour that say things currently about how little this game means to them, how much they don’t like it, that they don’t play for fun anymore.
“It means absolutely everything to me.
“I attend every players’ meeting. It’s a game that I’m passionate about and I don’t just criticise from the sidelines.
“I’m actually involved getting my hands dirty and trying to make the game better than when I turned pro.
“The apathy on Tour is disgusting, the lack of desire to actually want to get involved and make positive change for this game.
“But for most of us we come from a very working-class background, that side of the street.
“This game has taken us out of probably a life in the job centre or on the dole that most of us would have been collecting every fortnight. That’s the life most of us come from.
“To not get involved properly and try and make the game better is pretty poor.”
O’Sullivan hit two centuries – a 137 and 103 – as he thrashed Zhou Yuelong 6-0 to reach the quarter-finals of the UK Championship.
When Murphy’s comments were put to the Essex potter, he laughed: “I’m not interested in what anyone has got to say about me – I absolutely vacated a long time ago.
“I’m just doing my own business. I don’t care. I cut off a long time ago. I’m really happy.”
