World Snooker Championship stars discuss SIX major rule changes to modernise sport including dress code

The Irish Sun

02-05-2025

SNOOKER stars have discussed six huge rule changes to improve the game.
Shaun Murphy, Neil Robertson, Mark Selby and Barry Hawkins, who have six Crucible titles between them, were asked for their thoughts on a range topics from shot clocks to fouls.
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Shaun Murphy and Neil Robertson are both in favour of sweeping changes to snooker
Credit: Rex
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Mark Selby wanted limit on plays to stop frames going on for too long
Credit: Getty
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Barry Hawkins is happy with the game as it is
Credit: Alamy
The Magician has once again stood by that
But Hawkins felt getting rid of them would be axing a "tactical" side of the game.
The Hawk was also in favour of keeping the miss rule and not introducing a shot clock.
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But Murphy wanted deliberate misses out of the sport, Selby wanted a limit on fouls and
He explained to
"That would speed the game up massively. It would be a massive win for snooker, whether the authorities would I don't know but it's a big change, I'd love to see."
Murphy also wants sweeping changes and is
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He said: "Matches going onto 12am or 1am in the morning is the biggest indicator we need a shot clock.
"I'm not talking about a shootout style in every event, but we need some sort of time limit.
"Players averages approaching 30 seconds and above. It's just boring.
"Who wants to watch a player take 30 seconds to play a shot? It's too slow."
Selby and Robertson agreed that it could prove too challenging to implement.
It is a similar issue with toilet breaks with all four players agreeing that it is used as "gamesmanship" to "relieve pressure", but they were unsure how to stamp it out.
Asked what else they would change, Robertson incredibly wanted a huge change to the dress code.
He said: "Over the last six months I have got really addicted to golf, I have seen all the clothes line and footwear have progressed massively over the years and in snooker we should definitely do that.
"It's not the most comfortable thing to wear. I can wear a suit, it doesn't bother me too much but a lot of other players are really uncomfortbale.
"We're looking at targeting a young generation my son, for example, he is not looking at a snooker player and thinking, 'I want to wear a waistcoat and bow tie one day'.
"We need to progressing with these things and not staying still. If you stay still you regress.
"For the World Championship and Triple Crown events, keep the bow tie and waistcoat like Wimbledon do with white clothing but other events, we need to modernise massively."