RONNIE O’SULLIVAN once urged boring snooker stars to play with personality — and stop acting DEAD on the baize.
The Rocket won his seventh World Snooker Championship title in May to draw level with Stephen Hendry.
But the world champion once revealed he thinks the game has lost its characters.
O'Sullivan, 46, was desperate for his fellow pros to express themselves on the table to reclaim dwindling TV audiences.
In an interview in 2020, he said: “Every sport needs characters. You look at athletics, you look at Usain Bolt, a huge character, a massive personality.
“In tennis, it’s Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer, who bring their own stuff. In snooker, there ain’t a lot of personality there.
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“It would be great for them to just come out and give it a little bit.
“I don’t mean be flash or arrogant but just play with a bit of personality, play the game, express yourself, look like you are enjoying it.
“Don’t look like it’s a pint of blood or standing there and the world is on your shoulders.
“Go out there and let it rip. Give it a go. Smash it up. I’m doing that inside. You have to tone it down a bit. But I’m still playing with personality.
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“I look at some of these other players and they are like dead. You need a good kick up the bum. Liven yourself up.”
The Essex potter added: “Steve Davis ruined the game in the 80s.
“Everybody else played and had a laugh, a joke and had a personality. Davis came along and he was like a robot.
"As a person, he has personality but on the table it was emotionless, sipping his water, not talking. That became the new snooker player.
“We all became like Steve Davis clones.
“But snooker in the 80s was buzzing. You had Terry Griffiths with his little hairstyle, Willie Thorne with his little moustache, big Bill Werbeniuk.
“You had so many characters and people could relate to them. Now there are none.
“All of the snooker players are nice people when you speak to them off the table. But on the table, you think: ‘Mate, give me something.’ They don’t have any energy.
“I’m sure there is some passion in there somewhere. But they don’t play with enough of it.”
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