Seven-times world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan referred to as on snooker’s governing our bodies to offer assist for gamers suspended following an ongoing match-fixing investigation.
O’Sullivan, 47, urged warning about leaping to conclusions and highlighted the wrestle to make a residing from skilled snooker after he reached the quarter-finals of the Masters at Alexandra Palace on Monday.
The event has been overshadowed by the absence of former champion Yan Bingtao and world number nine Zhao Xintong, who are among 10 Chinese players suspended as part of the investigation.
“Earlier than you begin criticising the fellows concerned it’s a must to put your self in different folks’s footwear,” O’Sullivan mentioned. “It will probably solely be one in every of two issues, they both have an dependancy and if that’s a case then they need assistance, or they’re struggling to make ends meet.
“World Snooker might assist assist them relatively than being onerous on them and possibly change their construction and possibly not put these gamers in that scenario… Perhaps assist ultimately the place it’s much less punishing for the lower-ranked gamers.
“I’m not one to be onerous on them as a result of I do know it’s not simple for the underside gamers… Try to unravel it and try to assist these folks to hopefully put them able the place they may not really feel the necessity to must do what they’ve needed to do.”
In a joint assertion cited by British media, World Snooker Tour (WST) and the World Skilled Billiards and Snooker Affiliation (WPBSA) mentioned they supply “assist each in assured earnings and the chance to earn important sums of prize cash”.
“Our construction features a Gamers’ Board, and offering welfare and assist to our gamers is extraordinarily vital to us,” it mentioned.
