O'Sullivan against change

Ronnie O’Sullivan has appealed to his fellow players to give the sport’s bosses their support at a crucial vote on the future of the game tomorrow.

The world number one, who swept aside Dominic Dale 5-1 in the second round of the £450,000 (€708,000) British Open at Telford, is not backing a move to oust the board of the WPBSA.

The motion has been brought by three ex-world champions – Terry Griffiths, Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry, who want Altium Sport, backed by an initial £2.5m (€3.93m) investment, to run the sport.

But O’Sullivan believes the appointment of World Snooker Enterprises to run the commercial affairs of the governing body is proof that snooker is moving in the right direction.

“It is a very important day for snooker,” said O’Sullivan.

“Other players have been going on about the need for professional people to run the game. Now that’s happened and they’re still moaning.

“I don’t understand why they are complaining. We’ve got the professionals now so give them a chance.

“You have to give them a bit of time. You plant the seed, it grows and then blossoms into a nice flower. And you have to give it some water and feed it. That’s what we need to do.

“I think these new people will take the game forward. The players know that but there are people walking around the circuit planting different seeds and stories in people’s heads, all negative stuff that’s causing a bit of unrest.

“I know that once the new people start kicking into gear and producing the goods everyone will be happy again.”

The vote to remove the WPBSA board is expected to be close, although O’Sullivan’s interjection could tip the balance in their favour.

The 26-year-old was equally unequivocal on the table as he coasted past Welshman Dale in little over 90 minutes.

O’Sullivan racked up 355 points without reply as he motored from 1-1 to 4-1 with breaks of 123, 82 and 64.

His century was the 299th of his career and Dale could not pot a ball for three frames.

From 4-52 in the sixth, O’Sullivan completed victory with a brilliant break of 82 to prevent any Dale comeback and march into the last 16.

Afterwards, he claimed that he “wasn’t that good” at the game, despite his heavy scoring.

“I missed balls early on but that’s because I’m not that good,” he said.

“I’ve watched myself and I’m not really much good. That’s a good thing because now I know why I worry about my game.

“If I was good I wouldn’t worry about anything. Having watched myself, I’ve seen things that aren’t right.

“I’ll have to find something else in my life that makes me feel secure because I feel very insecure around the snooker table.

“I’ll keep playing as long as I’m in the top 16 but it wouldn’t surprise me if I dropped out. The standard is so high that I will eventually get overtaken.

“If other players played well against me they are going to beat me but if they play poorly against me then I’ll win.”

Brian Morgan, the world number 41, reached the last 16 with a 5-2 victory over Australian Quinten Hann.

Morgan made a break of 100 in the sixth frame and was at the table on 68 in the next when Hann conceded.

“He’d had enough and said ‘that’ll do, Brian’, which was fine with me,” said Morgan.