Already this year we have been subjected to the sulkiness of Sebastian Vettel and a plethora of stories about Wayne Rooney and Tiger Woods’ proclivity for ‘other women’. Now we’re faced with the greed of Ronnie O’Sullivan.
During his match against Mark King last night, O’Sullivan cleared the balls to reach a break of 140 with only the black left to clear in order to achieve a maximum 147 break. Except that on frame three the unpredictable O’Sullivan had already stopped playing with just eight points on the table to ask the referee what the prize pot for a 147 was.
While nobody can doubt the confidence – and brilliance – of a player who can already see the possibility of getting the highest break, what followed was a display of sheer arrogance as, being told that there wasn’t a specific prize for a 147 and the reward for the tournament’s highest break was ‘just’ £4’000, Ronnie went on to pot the pink and then shook Mark King’s hand.
The referee had to actually persuade O’Sullivan to pot the black, and afterwards the star said that the reason he wasn’t going to was because if there wasn’t a specific prize on the table it wasn’t worth doing.
Ronnie O’Sullivan can be an absolute joy to watch and I know that he’s been struggling with his enjoyment of the game lately, often talking about quitting to spend more time with his children because he’s simply not enjoying himself, but he would also do well to remember that the fans and sponsors are the ones who pay his extremely large wage and have allowed him to live in a comfort that many of us can’t enjoy.
It’s for them he should have played that 147 without persuasion, rather than moaning that once he’d paid his tax on the £4k he wouldn’t be able to take a decent holiday.
You can see the frame winning round here:
Droning On 
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