Shaun Murphy's proposed snooker rule change receives support from Stephen Hendry

 

Stephen Hendry isn't totally against Shaun Murphy's suggestion

Shaun Murphy’s plea for a snooker rule has received partial support from Stephen Hendry. The reigning Masters champion is rarely short of an opinion, regularly suggesting changes that he believes would make the sport more accessible.

One idea he is particularly passionate about is adding a spot to the cue ball to demonstrate the amount of spin applied to the ball. A spot is applied to other cue sports but not snooker. Murphy has used a spot on the cue ball on his YouTube channel, where he shares coaching techniques and strategy advice. During one video, he said: “I'm going to keep using the spotted cue ball because we're getting some really good feedback about that. 

“You guys are loving seeing the spin, how the spin manipulates the cue ball and what it's actually doing. It's great that you can see it with one of these. You know what? I actually think we should be using one of these in tournament play.

"I think that you should be able to see this when we're playing. Think about this, snooker, currently, is the only table sport and cue sport that doesn't use one of these.

"They are using it in billiards, they're using it in nine-ball, they are using it in everything. Maybe it's time that snooker moved on, just so you guys can see what's happening."

Hendry discussed the idea while playing Neil Robertson on his popular Cue Tips YouTube channel. When Robertson asked the seven-time world champion for his opinion, he said he would be in favour of it being applied at certain tournaments but not all.

Murphy has called for snooker to make several changes

“I think there’d be room for it in one tournament but I wouldn’t like to see it rolled out in everything,” said Hendry. “A lot of players wouldn’t like it because they’d see the unwanted side they put on the ball.”

Murphy’s other rule change ideas include introducing a shot clock and abandoning the foul and miss rule. Speaking on the latter at the Welsh Open earlier this year, the Magician said: "I just find it so weird that we have a rule in the game that allows players to have a sighter. In my opinion, the miss rule needs to be taken out of the game altogether. I don't like the rule at all."

Meanwhile, Murphy began the new season with a crushing 5-0 victory over 14-year-old tour newcomer Michal Szubarczyk to qualify for the televised stages of the Wuhan Open in late August.