Yahoo News Snooker's old boys still call the shots - but a new superpower is rising
Tennis has Roger Federer and Serena Williams, football Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and American football Tom Brady. But for ageing talent defying their years, there is no rival to snooker.
Attempting to predict the winner of the World Championship, which began in Sheffield on Saturday, is not only an almost identical task to a decade ago but, remarkably, not too dissimilar from the turn of the century.
Ronnie O’Sullivan, who won the sport’s showpiece tournament in 2001, is No 1 seed for the event, with John Higgins, the man he beat 20 years ago, ranked No 5. Former world champions Neil Robertson, Mark Williams, Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby, as well as Stephen Maguire and Barry Hawkins, were also present in 2001 and are still among the game’s top 12 players. Right now, snooker truly is no sport for young men.
A glance at the leading players competing at the Crucible is like receiving a comforting hug from familiar friends we have grown accustomed to seeing annually.
Just one player in the world’s top 16, 21-year-old Masters winner Yan Bingtao, has turned professional in the past decade and he is the only man under the age of 29. More than half have plied their trade on the circuit for 20 years and the ‘Class of 92’ trio of O’Sullivan, Higgins and Williams are approaching their 30th anniversary as professional players.
Are the incumbents simply too good or is snooker a dying sport? The answer is complex.
Watch: Ronnie O'Sullivan welcomes fans back to Crucible with victory in first round
The golden generation
Products of snooker’s boom years in the 1980s, it is notable just how quickly those that turned professional the following decade were able to reach the pinnacle.
O’Sullivan, arguably the most naturally talented person to pick up a snooker cue, won the UK Championship just a year after leaving the amateur ranks. Higgins, Williams and Stephen Maguire took only six years to claim their maiden Triple Crown tournament.
“Back then there were nice plush clubs and so many good amateur tournaments that we were basically like semi-professionals before it became our career,” said Higgins, 45, told Telegraph Sport. “When we turned professional we were match-ready and able to knock over the older ones pretty easily. There wasn’t a lot of resistance to the surge coming through.
“Ronnie and myself got into the top 16 in two or three years and we’ve stayed there ever since. I think it was because the older players didn’t really have the drive to stay where they were.
“Right now, we are still at the age where we are striving to stay at the top of the game.”
They are doing a fine job of it. Robertson, 39, said: “This is the greatest era in snooker. There’s never been a harder period in the game to win tournaments. The players you have to beat are incredible and the standard of the game is always improving.
“Snooker is not a massively physical sport and players are looking after themselves better than they used to. As long as you look after yourself there’s no reason you can’t play as long as you want.”
As Barry Hearn, World Snooker chairman, put it: “Father Time does catch up with everyone at some point, but Ronnie, John Higgins and Mark Williams are doing a better job keeping age at bay than King Canute did with the tide.”
A decade without a new star
Yet the continued strength of some of the sport’s true legends is only part of a story that features a dearth of talent rising through the ranks. Despite snooker’s reach stretching further globally than ever before, a declining interest in Britain has meant an absence of legitimate threats to those in possession of the crown.
“It’s a combination of clubs closing down and less participation,” said Robertson. “Who is a young player from the UK that I thought: ‘Wow, is this the next big player?’ I thought it might be [world No 14] Jack Lisowski, but I can’t think of anyone since Judd [Trump].
“It’s already been about a decade without us being excited about a young player from the UK.”
At the same time, the sport can legitimately claim to be expanding. The World Under-21 Championship — a tournament won by the likes of O’Sullivan, Robertson, Ken Doherty and Peter Ebdon — produced 13 UK or Irish winners in 22 years up to 2010. The following decade saw an Asian clean sweep.
Mainland Europe, too, is having greater success than ever before with the likes of Switzerland’s Alexander Ursenbacher, France’s Brian Ochoiski and German duo Simon Lichtenberg and Lukas Kleckers — all of whom are in their early 20s — making strides, in addition to 15-year-old Ukrainian Iulian Boiko, who last year became the youngest ever professional player.
Given the low profile of snooker in those countries, such shoots of growth are yet to replace the void in new British talent. But, led by Yan, who earlier this year became the youngest Masters winner since O’Sullivan, the Chinese charge is imminent.
China's time
World No 1 Trump, says the sport must rebrand to attract a younger audience in Britain.
“In 10 years’ time I would imagine half of the top 16 will be Chinese,” said the 31-year-old. “I just think the mentality is different over there. In the UK children aren’t as willing and dedicated to putting in the workload required.
“Snooker is still very reliant on its older fans. They’ve never really tried to attract younger people. Maybe change the way we dress to make it a bit more appealing.
“Teenagers nowadays don’t want to be stuck wearing a dinner suit to play snooker. You’ve got to move with the times and appeal to different people.”
Hearn agrees that not enough has been done among amateur bodies to grow the game’s younger playing ranks, but says dropping the strict dress code altogether would be detrimental to the sport’s considerable growth in Asia. Instead, he says the key is creating variety: tournaments of different formats, lengths and, indeed, clothing.
As the sport’s main promoter, he says the current stagnation at the top of the world rankings is not particularly beneficial even with so many familiar faces to help sell tournaments.
“These are household names and they are good for the game because people quite like new talent but they would rather watch talent they know,” he said.
“But just imagine we are talking about Coronation Street or EastEnders. There are your favourites that people like or hate, but you always need new characters to keep it sharp, lively and provide some competition.
“If I had three new members of the top 16 every year that would be about right in a business sense.”
He also agrees the “Chinese tsunami is close to land”, with huge government-led investment in the country likely to pay off soon.
“In 10 years’ time I would expect six to eight Chinese players in the top 16, and two to four European players. Definitely less British players,” he said.
“But I wouldn’t be surprised if some of those rascals from the class of 92 aren’t still bloody playing.”
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