Shuan Murphy and several snooker stars are in agreement about a new tournament (Image: Getty)
World Snooker Championship finalist Shaun Murphy and many of his fellow stars believe the introduction of a Ryder Cup-style snooker tournament would be brilliant for the sport. The curtain may have just come down on the World Championships, with Wu Yize crowned the winner after a thriller against Murphy.
The sport is played one vs one on the table, with there no clear team tournament in the professional calendar. However, the likes of John Higgins, Kyren Wilson, Neil Robertson and others were well up for the idea when it was suggested at the Crucible.
When asked by Sporting Life if they would be up for a Ryder Cup-style snooker tournament with players from Great Britain and Ireland competing on one team, against the Chinese super stars and the rest of the world, Higgins said: “That would be good, yeah.
“That would be exciting. Do you know something that I don’t know? I think that would be good to bring that into the tour, something that you wouldn’t really see it as light hearted because you would still be one to one, but just something different from every event being the same.
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“It would be great to be part of that, because listen I was part of the team we won the World Cup in 1997, Scotland. It was brilliant being part of the team, there was me, Stephen Hendry, Alan McManus and a reserve. Then I played in other editions of it, but it was just two players and it wasn’t a team because Stephen Maguire or Anthony McGill was my partner and I was just sitting there on my own.
“It would be great to have someone, another teammate that you’re rooting for, the other guy that’s on play. That’s something that I’ve always thought, that a team event should have three or four players on it.”
John Higgins also supported the idea (Image: Getty)
“Yeah, count me in,” Murphy said. “I’d be in pretty much any format of snooker. I just love playing, if it involves putting balls in pockets, I’m taking part. It would be a good game, I think we’d stand our own and we’d keep the end up.
“I think we’d end up doing okay. We’ve had the ‘Asian invasion’ of snooker in the last 15 or 20 years. 12 Chinese players in the draw here at the Crucible this week is incredible. Listen, we’d still give as good as we’ve got.”
Kyren Wilson felt the tournament was a “no brainer”. He added: “Absolutely, it’s something me and my brother have spoken about quite often to be honest. I’m not necessarily the biggest of golf fans to be honest, but I will tune in to watch the Ryder Cup. I think that would bring in a new generation of fans, a different audience. I also think it’s something for the fans to cheer on.”
As for the suggestion opposition, Australian Neil Robertson couldn’t work out why a competition like it doesn’t exist already. “100 per cent,” he said when asked if he’d be up for the tournament. “I just can’t work out why it’s not there. What it would be more like a Presidents Cup where you have like the UK vs the rest of the world. Amazing.
“It would be so close as well. You would have myself, Xington, Ding, Luca Brecel, or other players around the world against the best in the UK. It would be absolutely amazing. I really don’t understand why [it’s not in existence]. The overseas players, we are all collectively in this together, we like to see each other do well. Something like that would be awesome for snooker.
“You would have that interest around the world as well. Everyone outside of the UK would be rooting for the rest of the world and vice versa over here. It would create that, absolutely. There is a bit where overseas players come over to the UK and it was really tough to do well in a sport and we weren’t given a great deal of support.
“It wasn’t until we came along we started to get support from World Snooker. Something like that would be really good. It would be competitive, I would desperately try to win, as would the UK based players as well.”