Ronnie: I don’t want to wait around until the end of the world championships next year and say ‘you know, yeah I won a couple of events’, you know, ‘I had a decent season’, but I’ve only been actually playing snooker for 6 weeks out of the year. A lot of time, I’ve been off, I don’t want the big format gap in the summer, I want to fill more time with doing things, and that’s why the opportunity for pool has come up. Its not my ideal game, I don’t really want to play pool. But I know, give me time, I can learn it, and you know, at the end of it I might say it isn’t for me, snooker isn’t for me or pool isn’t for me or whatever. I’m at the stage in my career where I want to take that risk. I’ve got nothing to loose, because I wasn’t happy last year playing snooker, although I won quite a few events. I wasn’t happy being world number 1. It wasn’t giving me everything I thought it was going to give me. So I’ve decided that I’m at that stage where I’ve really got nothing to lose. If I was loving and enjoying every minute of what I do than obviously it would be a harder decision for me. I don’t find it to be a very difficult decision to make because of my love-hate relationship with the game. I’m hoping pool will give me an interest that may make me want to play snooker with interest, so that my whole life isn’t just invested in snooker.
Interviewer: What would you say to those who say that snooker is obviously struggling with sponsors at the moment and it definitely needs the game to be promoted to attract new sponsors. What would you say to those who say you are deserting a sinking ship by defecting to pool for at least a part of your career?
Ronnie: They’re right, I am deserting a sinking ship. I’m being honest, it’s maybe a selfish way of looking at it, but I don’t want to wait for someone to go ‘here you go’, I want to go make something happen. The reason why I’m going to play pool is because its happening. It’s going on, the man [Keving Trudeau] is putting a lot of money into these events, he’s a worldly guy, he’s into tv, he’s into that sort of stuff. I look at snooker, and it’s a great game, but I see a lot of things not happening. I see a sinking ship, and I don’t want to be a part of that. I don’t want to hang around for one or two years and think ‘well, we haven’t gotten a tournament’ or ‘well, there might be tournaments’ , there might be the most fantastic people that have things in the pipeline that they aren’t telling us, but they are just going to surprise us one day and say “Walla, have some of that” and we are all going to go “oh you’re in business!”
I: But is it going to be difficult for them to re-float the sinking ship without arguably the best player of all time, the world number 1, a two-time world champion. Its going to be very difficult for them to market the game if your not there, isn’t it?
R: Well I find it very difficult…….for one thing I am going to be there, I’m playing in the four BBC events and I’m playing in the Bedford League.
I: For the next three years?
R: No, I can’t say that for the next three years, all I can say is that I’ve signed up for this year, I’ve got a deal with [a sponsor], they are managing me on the commercial sides and looking after my business interests, and that’s the decision where we’ll have to come to. If they decide “Look Ronnie, snooker isn’t going the way you want it to go, we suggest that you might be better off going to pool”, they’ll keep me informed, they’re looking out for my best interest, and that’s the stage I’m at. And I feel it’s a little unfair to put that responsibility on one person, to say “look, you have to stick with these people, because they’re having it hard”. But I am sticking in, I’m giving as much to snooker as I possibly can, but I also have to look after my own interests, and my own well-being, and my own well-being in playing in 6 events a year isn’t looking fantastic. I’m not deserting the sinking ship, but that is part of the reason why I’m going to America, it does look like a sinking ship. I really hope for all intensive purposes that they sort it all out and come up with this thing where we all go “well, how did you keep that a secret”, but we’ll have to wait and see. We’ve been given time for quite a while, and there might be a secret group of people who are holding aces up their sleeve, but it remains to be seen.
Interviewer: How good a pool player are you at the moment?
R: Below average. The ability is there, but it comes from practice and hard work. Before I played snooker I had no ability, but the ability came from putting the practice in, and that’s where the ability comes from. It’s a long, hard road, it could be exciting, could be good, or it could be terrible, we’ll have to wait and see.
Full interview here
Interviewer: What would you say to those who say that snooker is obviously struggling with sponsors at the moment and it definitely needs the game to be promoted to attract new sponsors. What would you say to those who say you are deserting a sinking ship by defecting to pool for at least a part of your career?
Ronnie: They’re right, I am deserting a sinking ship. I’m being honest, it’s maybe a selfish way of looking at it, but I don’t want to wait for someone to go ‘here you go’, I want to go make something happen. The reason why I’m going to play pool is because its happening. It’s going on, the man [Keving Trudeau] is putting a lot of money into these events, he’s a worldly guy, he’s into tv, he’s into that sort of stuff. I look at snooker, and it’s a great game, but I see a lot of things not happening. I see a sinking ship, and I don’t want to be a part of that. I don’t want to hang around for one or two years and think ‘well, we haven’t gotten a tournament’ or ‘well, there might be tournaments’ , there might be the most fantastic people that have things in the pipeline that they aren’t telling us, but they are just going to surprise us one day and say “Walla, have some of that” and we are all going to go “oh you’re in business!”
I: But is it going to be difficult for them to re-float the sinking ship without arguably the best player of all time, the world number 1, a two-time world champion. Its going to be very difficult for them to market the game if your not there, isn’t it?
R: Well I find it very difficult…….for one thing I am going to be there, I’m playing in the four BBC events and I’m playing in the Bedford League.
I: For the next three years?
R: No, I can’t say that for the next three years, all I can say is that I’ve signed up for this year, I’ve got a deal with [a sponsor], they are managing me on the commercial sides and looking after my business interests, and that’s the decision where we’ll have to come to. If they decide “Look Ronnie, snooker isn’t going the way you want it to go, we suggest that you might be better off going to pool”, they’ll keep me informed, they’re looking out for my best interest, and that’s the stage I’m at. And I feel it’s a little unfair to put that responsibility on one person, to say “look, you have to stick with these people, because they’re having it hard”. But I am sticking in, I’m giving as much to snooker as I possibly can, but I also have to look after my own interests, and my own well-being, and my own well-being in playing in 6 events a year isn’t looking fantastic. I’m not deserting the sinking ship, but that is part of the reason why I’m going to America, it does look like a sinking ship. I really hope for all intensive purposes that they sort it all out and come up with this thing where we all go “well, how did you keep that a secret”, but we’ll have to wait and see. We’ve been given time for quite a while, and there might be a secret group of people who are holding aces up their sleeve, but it remains to be seen.
Interviewer: How good a pool player are you at the moment?
R: Below average. The ability is there, but it comes from practice and hard work. Before I played snooker I had no ability, but the ability came from putting the practice in, and that’s where the ability comes from. It’s a long, hard road, it could be exciting, could be good, or it could be terrible, we’ll have to wait and see.
Full interview here
