Barry Hearn is pretty set on his top four snooker players of all time, but admits things get a bit trickier when it gets to number five.
The former chairman of World Snooker Tour agrees with the majority of snooker fans as he places Ronnie O’Sullivan at the top of his list of greats.
After the Rocket comes his fellow seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry and then the man Hearn managed at the peak of snooker’s popularity, Steve Davis.
In at number four is John Higgins, but then things get more complicated for the veteran promoter who thinks current world number one Judd Trump may have a shout at being the fifth best player ever.
‘If you’re talking technical ability, Ronne O’Sullivan is my number one without doubt. I mean left-handed, right-handed, the guy’s a genius,’ he said on The Barry Hearn Show.
‘Number two, reluctantly, I’ve got to give it to Stephen Hendry. Reluctantly because he really finished the era of Steve Davis who was my man.
‘When Stephen Hendry came along as a little spotty Scottish kid, everyone was talking about him being good, I didn’t realise how good he was but my word, he runs O’Sullivan quite close in my view, but O’Sullivan still gets the nod.
‘I’d have to give Davis number three and John Higgins would be number four.
‘Bare in mind these guys are playing top quality snooker, the Class of 92, they’re still winning tournaments as they approach their 50th birthday, that’s an amazing system. How on earth they do it, maintain the concentration, pot the balls as their eyesight begins to go, they’ve overcome all that. So Higgins would have to get number four.
‘Then it becomes a bit more arbitrary. I’d have Judd Trump quite high up there at number five, then I start thinking about does Ray Reardon come in at five? Going back to some of the earlier players. I think [Mark] Selby would be there, he’d be top 10.’
Six-time Crucible finalist Jimmy White was put to Hearn, but he said the Whirlwind’s failure to win the sport’s biggest prize keeps him out of the top five.
‘Jimmy never won the World Championship, he was in six finals but he lost six finals, it’s not a good record is it?’ Hearn said.
‘Sport’s about winning, it’s not about participating. Who invented that load of rubbish about the taking part that counts? I’ve never heard such rubbish in my life! It’s the bloody winning that counts.
‘I would have Jimmy at six or seven, that sort of level. He did win a lot of tournaments, he just never quite managed to win the Worlds.’
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