Ronnie O’Sullivan, the defending Masters champion, begins his bid for a file seventh title on Sunday in opposition to Liang Wenbo – and he options loads within the media on Saturday.
O’Sullivan is in fact a lot in demand for his ideas forward of the most important tournaments, and World Snooker must be congratulated for making him out there for greater than an hour final week.
A small group of 4 journalists, together with yours actually, sat down with him in Romford, together with a BBC tv crew and the outcomes are on the market for all to see.
And I might significantly draw consideration to a few prolonged profiles from two of the higher interviewers and have writers in my sport.
I and a few colleagues are lucky in that we get to talk to O’Sullivan a number of instances a 12 months, plus in lots extra press conferences on high of that.
However the impression of somebody assembly him as soon as in a blue moon, or for the primary time, and given some area to write down a correct piece, gives a distinct and precious perspective.
And Oliver Brown of the Each day Telegraph and Sean Ingle of the The Guardian have made probably the most of that chance to supply up glorious particular person takes on the identical assembly.
Hyperlinks
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/jan/13/ronnie-osullivan-interview-snooker-masters-happier-political
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/snooker/2017/01/13/renegade-ronnie-osullivan-looks-life-beyond-baize/
There may be additionally a great piece within the Each day Mail, all from the identical 70 minutes of quotes; however The Occasions, sadly a fading pressure on snooker protection and for causes finest recognized to themselves, snubbed the uncommon probability to both ship a workers reporter alongside or make use of the freelance useful resource within the room.
With the remainder of the bases lined I supplied up one or two mildly amusing traces to the tabloids (Star, Solar and Mirror on Saturday), and Jamie Broughton of the BBC additionally bought some good use of their time with O’Sullivan.
Gamers, for instance John Higgins in recent times, get rightly criticised when they don’t fulfil their media duties both to the letter of the contract, or with the best stage of enthusiasm and embracing the ambassadorial obligation that comes with being a high skilled.
In equity to O’Sullivan, he has finished his bit over 25 years. Sure, he might have ducked the odd press convention, though you’d be onerous pushed to call a couple of in recent times, however he has finished extra media through the years than a lot of the gamers put collectively. The honest ones know this, acknowledge it, and are sometimes fairly grateful that he’s the lightning conductor.
The overwhelming majority of gamers are very good ambassadors for snooker. They know that whereas it’s their complete world, on the market it’s a minority sport preventing for consideration with different, larger sports activities, they usually give of their time willingly and out of doors their contractual obligations for the great of the sport.
To all these gamers we are saying thanks, and in addition O’Sullivan on this event – with a busy schedule, turning up admitting he “actually didn’t need to be right here”, trying dishevelled after a late evening in Eire at Goffs and an early flight, however answering the decision to advertise the Masters.
