FOUR-TIME SNOOKER world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan has demanded ‘some slack’ from the game’s bosses and reiterated his retirement threat.
The Rocket comprehensively beat Ali Carter in the Crucible showpiece yesterday evening but has warned he’ll walk away from the table for good is Barry Hearn doesn’t show more compassion to players.
O’Sullivan — a single father of two young boys — is concerned by an increasingly heavy schedule of tournaments on the new look tour.
He collapsed last year, citing exhaustion, before then contracting glandular fever. He’s also recieved several letters enquiring to his whereabouts having missed low-pay tournaments that are now almost mandatory.
“It would be sad for me to walk away from snooker,” he said today, “and I do think it would be a loss for snooker because I still think I’ve got a lot to give. But it needs to be sustainable, it needs to be fair.
“I’m not the type of guy that wants to hold anyone to ransom. We (the players) all love this game, and there’s people backstage who don’t know what it’s like to love a sport. They’re just there to do a job, and sometimes you need to have some compassion for people and cut some people a bit of slack. But there doesn’t seem to be any of that.”
