Ronnie O’Sullivan offered major deal by Barry Hearn as sports icon looks beyond snooker
BARRY HEARN is keen to get behind Ronnie O’Sullivan’s proposal for snooker academies across the UK.
O’Sullivan, 49, revealed his potting masterplan during the World Snooker Championship for a series of clubs in the four Home Nations and Ireland.
The Rocket reckons him and fellow Class of 92 graduates Mark Williams (Wales) and John Higgins and 1997 world champion Ken Doherty (Ireland) could use their names to front the academies.
However, it needs serious funding, perhaps by government channels, and a long-term vision to help discover the next generation to rival the talented young Chinese cueists coming through.
There are only two Brits under the age of 30 in the top 50 spots on the world rankings – Jackson Page (23) and Joe O’Connor (29) — compared to 11 from China, which includes new world champion Zhao Xintong, who is 28.
This was put to Hearn, who is a very wealthy man and the president of Matchroom Sport – who plays on Tuesday in the UK Open pool first round – who has embraced the idea.
Hearn, 76, said: “We’ve got to work harder on that. We need more academies.
“But you need people that want to play and there’s got to be a reason for that.
“I mean the youngsters now that watch Luke Littler achieve his dreams in darts and suddenly become a multimillionaire – they want that, too.
“There’s a million people under-21 who are out of work. This is a potential disaster. We’re losing the generation.
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“And sport can be a way of curing that. Snooker can help, I hope. But we need to do more. Definitely.
“So the exhibition of snooker that we are seeing here in Sheffield, maybe a kid goes, ‘I’d like to have a go at that’.
“The Class of 92 are still an unbelievable story. You think every 50-year-old should start playing snooker because that’s the age to be.
“But we need the Luke Littler effect in snooker without doubt.
“Ronnie likes his academies. He’s got one in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and it’s beautiful. They look after him extremely well.
“I don’t think he’ll get quite the same treatment if he launches a series of academies in England.
“But to use his name would be a very valuable asset in trying to promote grassroots.
“And I think if he has really serious ideas, I would welcome a meeting between him and World Snooker.
Hearn backs O’Sullivan
“It’s all right having a plan. My whole life has been about plans in my head. You have to live them out.
“You can’t just say something now. You’ve gotta do something.
“But if he is serious about it, I would 100 per cent welcome it and get beyond him solidly to launch a series of Ronnie O’Sullivan snooker academies all over the country to inspire young people to play. Let’s have a chat about it.”
O’Sullivan has seven world titles – a record he shares with Stephen Hendry – and provided he locates a proper cue at some point, having snapped his favourite one in January, he will aim to go for No8 in 2026.
Time is running out, of course, for him to achieve that dream and yet he has been badly overlooked by the honours system for what he has done in the sport, given he has only received an OBE.
Ronnie praise
Hearn said: “Ronnie O’Sullivan has been the best player in the world for many years.
“There’s no question about that. And what he’s doing this week is typical Ronnie O’Sullivan, defying all the odds and all logic.
“Breaks his cue. Comes back. Tries three or four cues. I mean the boy is a total phenomenon.
“There’s a case to say that he deserves to be picked out and to be knighted for services to snooker.
“I mean he’s human. He has different parts of attitude that may not appeal to everybody.
“But for his sheer excellence, I think there’s a very good case to be made. And I would welcome it.”