Former world snooker champions Stephen Hendry and Shaun Murphy propose major rule change at UK Championship
SNOOKER stars Stephen Hendry and Shaun Murphy have called for a major rule change at the UK Championship.
The two bemoaned the amount of “dead time” in matches while on punditry duty for BBC Sport at the Barbican this week.
Discussing the topic, they then went on to reveal what they think would be the best solution.
Hendry suggested that matches should come to an end once snookers are required by the trailing opponent.
A player can attempt to snooker their opponent in order to force them into a foul if they need more points in a match.
But both Hendry and Murphy believe this takes up too much time during matches.
Instead, the duo want to see each match end as soon as snookers are required.
Elaborating on his point, Murphy said: “I tweeted that last week and got widely abused for it.
“But I think I am onto something, I mean the frame is over! Let’s rack them up and let’s go.”
When asked how they plan on moving forward with the idea, Hendry responded: “With difficulty I think. But certainly for you guys, TV, you just know when frames are going to finish and that’s it.
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“There’s so much dead time, isn’t there? Who enjoys watching when someone is three or four snookers ahead?”
However, BBC commentator John Parrott and snooker star Ken Doherty strongly disagreed with the proposed rule change.
Parrott said: “Typical, two players who don’t know what a snooker looks like want to change the rules.”
While Doherty explained: “It’s called snooker for a reason, John, isn’t it?”