Shaun Murphy has launched a blistering attack on Ronnie O’Sullivan – by claiming the Rocket is a poor ambassador for snooker.
World No13 and former world champion Murphy is attempting to win the Cazoo UK Championship for the second time in York – and on Thursday takes on 2011 winner Judd Trump in the last 16.
But ahead of what promises to be a clash to savour, the 40-year-old Murphy has blasted the game’s No1 box office star and record seven-time world champion O’Sullivan over his attitude.
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World No1 O’Sullivan, who turns 47 next month, has angered his rival by continually insisting he cares little for the sport despite still winning trophies and being hailed as a genius.
And as well as criticising the seven-time UK winner’s often bored and disinterested demeanour, Murphy suggested that O’Sullivan doesn’t appreciate his wealth and what snooker has given him.
The pair have previous form. Murphy once branded O’Sullivan “pathetic, unprofessional and disrespectful” after he had to be persuaded to pot the final black in a 147 because the £4,000 prize was too small.
And O'Sullivan, when pressed at a literary festival in 2016, admitted that Murphy was his least favourite player on tour, noting: “We don’t relate.”
After his first-round win against Matthew Stevens, O’Sullivan fell back on a familiar script by saying: “I feel flat, and I don’t really enjoy playing snooker. This is so insignificant.”
BBC pundit Murphy asked: "So why do you carry on?" And the Rocket, who once took a season off, said: "Because it is something to do. When I had the year out, I got bored working on the pig farm."
And yesterday Murphy said: “It is very frustrating hearing Ronnie and others say it’s just one of the things they do with their life… and that the game means so little to them.
“For players like myself…I don’t have the CV of O’Sullivan, I don’t have what I assume must be an incredible amount of wealth.
“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 that have cabinet after cabinet of trophies to say how little the game means to them, but for the rest of us it means an awful lot.
“But I am only 40 and I remember the village I grew up in and I know the life I would have had but for this game that saved me from a life of complete anonymity. I will never, ever forget that.
“It is 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 was previously head of a players’ commission that meet regularly online to discuss issues affecting the sport and seek change from those running the game.
And although he has recently stepped down from that position, the Dublin-based professional still religiously offers input at such gatherings while O’Sullivan and Trump have tended not to.
Murphy added: “I attend every players’ meeting, it’s a game that I am passionate about and I don’t just criticise from the sidelines.
“I am actually involved, getting my hands dirty and trying to make the game better than when I turned pro.
“There are players’ meetings, players’ online ‘coffee mornings’, outreach programmes the WPBSA have in place I attend to try and make the game better.
“But overall the apathy on tour is disgusting, the lack of desire to actually want to get involved and make positive change for this game.”
O’Sullivan remains a red-hot favourite for an eighth UK crown after whitewashing Zhou Yuelong 6-0 – with the talented Chinese youngster letting himself down.
He said in response to Murphy: “If people want to come and choose to watch me play then great, and if they choose not to watch me, that’s also great. It’s better they come and watch you than not.
“I am just doing my own business, and I don’t care what they say about the game. I just don’t care and I cut off for a long time.
“I love what I am doing, I enjoy where I am and that’s it. It’s better to be like that. I don’t know what to say, I’m sorry, I’m lost for words.”
And on Zhou’s collapse, he added: “I never had a problem with that big stage. My first time on TV at 14 I made a 75 first poke. I never had a problem with big crowds and big occasions.
“The bigger the occasion, the more I liked it. And if you can’t handle it, you are going to struggle. I think you are born with it or not, you can’t teach it…the love of pressure.
“That’s why winners are winners and others don’t win as much. Some kids you can see they are different.
“Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis in snooker, Tiger Woods, they just have that pure intensity.
“I don’t think anyone has got that on the tour at the moment. Every now and again is one thing, but maintaining it is the hard bit.”
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