The entire snooker community can rejoice this year! Ronnie O’Sullivan has been nominated for the Sports Personality Of The Year (SPOTY) awards. This nomination is long overdue. O’Sullivan is the first snooker player to be nominated since Stephen Hendry in 1990. He could be the first to win the prestigious award since Steve Davis in 1988. Many snooker fans, players, and pundits have already thrown their support to O’Sullivan.
But snooker’s relationship with SPOTY is weird. Here’s what Ronnie O’Sullivan thought about it all in-depth. It was only a few years ago when O’Sullivan hoped to never be nominated for the award at all.
Why has Ronnie O’Sullivan been nominated this year?
Ronnie O’Sullivan’s main achievement this year is winning his sixth World Championship title. He became the oldest snooker World Champion since Ray Reardon won the title back in 1978.
That Worlds victory was his 37th ranking title, the most held by anyone in history. He also has the most Triple Crown tournament wins too, winning twenty in total. That SPOTY nomination is a testament to O’Sullivan’s dominance throughout his long career. O’Sullivan also had to fend off his demons, struggling with depression and addictions throughout his life.
The Rocket has personality in abundance. O’Sullivan is never the person who liked being told what to do. His opinions have split viewers too. Critics and supported accused him of being either brutally honest or ungraciously disrespectful. His interview demeanour is always entertaining, from constant references towards his cue action to answering in an Australian accent.
Snooker Taking Advantage in 2020
COVID-19 virus forced many organisations around the world to postpone or cancel their sporting events. But Barry Hearn had other ideas.
His supreme planning made snooker one of the very first sports to return after the first lockdown restrictions in England. The World Snooker Championship replaced the postponed Tokyo Olympics in the TV schedules this summer. This attracted many sport-hungry viewers, gaining much more coverage than usual.
The 2020 World Championship achieved record viewing figures according to WST. “The World Championship achieved strong coverage across all BBC platforms, with 17.1 million online viewing requests on the BBC Sport website and the iPlayer.” Even Ronnie’s semi-final match against Mark Selby peaked at 2.27 million viewers!
Why has his nomination taken so long?
Hendry said that “there’s a snobbery towards snooker that has always been there” back in 2013. Is there snobbery because it’s a working-class game? Don’t some people regard snooker as a sport and why not? Is it because of a lack of appreciation of its skill or that it doesn’t need as much physical fitness compared to other sports? Maybe it is due to the lack of coverage in the newspapers? Goodness knows.
There is an irony that 2020 isn’t even the year O’Sullivan was most deserving of the nomination. He won the Premier League and scored a maximum break on his way to winning the World Championship in 2008. Then there was 2019, where he won many titles and reached 1000 career centuries.
Ronnie O’Sullivan’s greatest achievement for me was defending his World Championship crown in 2013, after taking a year out of the sport. He broke Hendry’s record of career Crucible centuries, and became the first player to make six centuries in a World Championship final. Ronnie barely had any match practice, yet he beat the entire field of players who had plenty. Only geniuses can do that.
But even that wasn’t enough.
Can he win it?
Indeed he can. But he’s against some competition.
Lewis Hamilton matched Michael Schumacher’s record of seven World Drivers’ Championship titles. Hamilton broke numerous records this year, going so far for some to call him the greatest ever F1 driver. TIME Magazine listed Hamilton among 2020s most influential people in the world. Ronnie recently played down his achievements, saying that Hamilton succeeded in an uneven playing field because of his superior car.
Tyson Fury asked the BBC to remove him from the shortlist because he doesn’t need verification as he believes he’s the People’s Champion. Jordan Henderson is the unsung hero behind Liverpool’s Premier League heroics. I don’t know too much about what Stuart Broad and Hollie Doyle accomplished this year.
O’Sullivan might get onto the podium places but I doubt he will win. He does have a serious shot. But Ronnie won’t care whatever the result. SPOTY isn’t the be all that ends all. Many are ambivalent about it. Some don’t understand how it gets awarded. But it’s a relief for snooker to get the recognition it deserves in the form of their greatest asset.
O’Sullivan will be alongside Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton MBE, boxer Tyson Fury, footballer Jordan Henderson, cricketer Stuart Broad and horse racer Hollie Doyle.
Voting will be open to the public during the Sports Personality programme on BBC One on Sunday, 20th December. Details of how to vote will be available on the night from 8 pm.
