Shaun Murphy hits out at rivals over Australian Open snub (original) (raw)

Shaun Murphy, the former world champion, has criticised his rivals for deciding to snub next week’s Australian Open, the second major tournament of the snooker season.

The field at the Bendigo Stadium in Victoria has been left decimated with eight of the world’s top 16 plus Ronnie O’Sullivan, the reigning world champion, absent.

A collective reluctance to embrace the only ranking event currently staged in the southern hemisphere could yet hasten the death knell for the £270,000 tourmament which is in the final year of a three-year deal.

Ali Carter, the German Masters champion, will be recovering from surgery after being diagnosed with testicular cancer - but O’Sullivan, Judd Trump and the Scottish heavyweight trio of John Higgins, Stephen Maguire and Graeme Dott are among those opting out.

Leading players have been voicing their dissatisfaction over the level of prize money, considerable travel expenses, the remote Victoria location and tax arrangements in Australia. However, Murphy, the world No 4, will be there along with Neil Robertson, the world No 1, in his home tournament, and Mark Selby, the world No 2.

“We are playing for £8 million plus this season, that’s a lot of money,” Murphy, 30, said.

“Snooker players are very privileged to play a sport for their living and not have to do what the man in the street does for money.

“It’s an absolute joke that players are considering not going to Australia again, an event that wasn’t supported last year.

“A few years ago we had a handful of tournaments, and the one thing Barry Hearn [the World Snooker chairman] promised was opportunity, not a free meal ticket, but the events and chance to earn well. He has fulfilled that promise above and beyond.

“If players choose not to enter events that is their choice, but to go to Australia and play snooker, that is incredible.

“Mark Allen has predicted up to half of the 128-man tour might struggle to keep going because of the expenses of travel. But I don’t see how he can say that, and you have to cut your cloth.

“If players who haven’t won much fly first class, stay in five-star hotels, and remain in the city for the whole event even after getting knocked out, of course they will struggle.

“When I started I stayed in cheap hotels and flew economy as that is what I could afford, deals at B&Bs and that sort of thing.

“Seeing snooker as a steady income and a wage, as many do, is not the right way to look at it. If you win, you will earn, that’s it.

“If I had wanted a comfortable, no-risk life I wouldn’t have become a snooker player I would have got a proper job. I took a chance on myself.”

However, Dott, 36, also a former world champion, has insisted that he and others were comfortable with the decision to defy a personal plea from Hearn to support the tournament.

“The money is the reason, the prize money is not big enough for going to the other side of the world and what that means and costs,” the world No 14 said.

“I am not paying that amount of money to get there when I am only on just over £4,000 guaranteed to be there or whatever it is.

“Also the ranking points for that event are not as much, so when you take the two together there is no point. It’s a no-brainer, the flights to get to Australia are a lot of money

“Barry Hearn appealed to the players to support the event this year and to be an ambassador and things but that didn’t wash with me.

“I don’t know if it has a future, I have never been so I can’t say, I don’t know how it is promoted but I don’t feel bad about not going.

“But I do know it is hard to class it as a top tournament with that many top players not making the trip and not playing in it.”

The event starts on Monday with Barry Hawkins, the World Championship finalist, defending his title.