Ronnie O’Sullivan and the middle-aged brigade are not the only reason why snooker lacks younger stars

O’Sullivan is still snooker’s youngest ranking event winner having captured the 1993 UK Championship when he was just 17. His generation overturned the old order but, at 46, he is world No. 1 and the reigning Crucible king with a relative lack of authentic young challengers snapping at his heels.

“I’m really surprised we haven’t got much better young players,” he said in the Eurosport studio last week. “The last really exceptional player to come through was Judd Trump. We’re always looking for new players. Is Jackson Page going to do it, or Aaron Hill? There’s Luca Brecel, but they hit that point and never press on.

“Zhao Xintong is the only one but he’s still unproven. He’s 25, he’s not a baby anymore. I know he’s won the UK and the German but look at Stephen Hendry’s CV by then, he was on three or four world titles.

“It’s weird and I can’t work it out. When a 21-year-old Jackson Page plays a 47-year-old John Higgins he should be a massive favourite, but he’s not.”

Page played brilliantly against Higgins in Belfast last week but lost 4-3 after the Scot produced a typically gutsy clearance to save the match in frame six. The result summed up the current situation on the professional tour: there are some very good young players, but they are struggling to get past the middle-aged brigade.

World Top 16 & Age

• 1 Ronnie O’Sullivan – 46
• 2 Judd Trump – 33
• 3 Neil Robertson – 40
• 4 Mark Selby – 39
• 5 John Higgins – 47
• 6 Kyren Wilson – 30
• 7 Zhao Xintong – 25
• 8 Mark Williams – 47
• 9 Barry Hawkins – 43
• 10 Mark Allen – 36
• 11 Luca Brecel – 27
• 12 Jack Lisowski – 31
• 13 Shaun Murphy – 40
• 14 Stuart Bingham – 46
• 15 Yan Bingtao – 22
• 16 Ryan Day – 42

When O’Sullivan turned professional in 1992 alongside Higgins and Mark Williams, the players in their late 40s were champions of the past in decline, much loved campaigners such as Terry Griffiths, Dennis Taylor and Cliff Thorburn. The natural order of things dictated that these great stars would be shoved off the stage by younger, hungrier emerging players.

But now the younger prospects are fewer in number and the older players seem as good as they ever were, making it even more likely that O’Sullivan and co will still be at the top into their 50s.

One problem for the youngsters is that the older players have such a strong grounding that they are able to keep going, as Alan McManus pointed out in the Eurosport studio.

“There’s nothing mysterious for me about the Class of ’92,” he said. “They had the correct schooling. It was a different schooling. When Ronnie turned pro at 17, he won 74 matches out of 76 during one summer. You don’t know it at the time, but it toughens you up.”

1975 was probably the perfect year to be born if you were to become a successful British snooker champion. Ten years old when Dennis Taylor sank the final black against Steve Davis at the height of the UK snooker boom, you grew up in a culture where snooker was part of the bloodstream of a nation.

Not only were tournaments shown prominently on the major channels but players regularly appeared on other prime time TV shows. Live football on television was a rarity. Snooker was not some niche activity you were embarrassed to admit you liked. You’d have been more unusual in the school playground if you said you had no interest in it.

O’Sullivan, Higgins and Williams became the Class of ’92 but were all born in 1975 and in their respective parts of the UK had access to a thriving junior and amateur scene which made them the players they became. They learned about match snooker at an early age, about winning and losing. They were part of the adult snooker club culture which also taught them about the wider world.

They also had fun, a key component which is perhaps missing today. Weekends away at holiday camps, playing snooker, making friends, experiencing life, was all part of the education. Now, players spend long hours in academies where it’s all about potting ball after ball.

“When I was younger, it was just before the internet kicked in,” Neil Robertson told Eurosport last week. “The form of entertainment for me was being in the snooker club for 12 hours, playing snooker for eight hours and playing on the pinball machines. Snooker clubs back then were such a fun place to be, and there were lots of juniors there around my age.

“It’s different now. Young players are going there trying to be ultra professional straight away, they’re not really playing for fun, whereas when I was younger it was all about fun. Young players now want to get on to the tour as quickly as possible and forge their way through, but I don’t know if they want to try and get better at the game.”

Robertson also recognises the challenges of trying to overturn an established order in a sport which does not have physical limitations.

“It’s tough because snooker’s not a sport where your age dictates when you’re going to retire, so the young players have to wait a long time to dislodge players like Ronnie,” he said.

“I’m 40 now, so the young players have to come through and dislodge us, whereas when I was coming through, Stephen Hendry retired at 43 and was clearly well past the player he was.

“Maybe that was just the mindset back then that when you got to 30 it was seen that the end was close, but it’s not like that now. Ronnie, John and Mark have shown that you can keep going if you’ve got the right mindset. If you’re healthy, then you can play the game as long as you want.”

The truth is, British culture has changed. Snooker is still popular on television but TV itself has splintered into hundreds of channels and with streaming services as well there is far more competition for eyeballs. Snooker clubs have shut at an alarming rate in the last two decades, leaving fewer places to play. To some extent, the familial link has been broken.

O’Sullivan, Higgins and Williams all got into snooker because of their fathers, as did Robertson. It seems this generational bond has been gradually eroded.

Conversely, around the world interest has grown considerably but young non-British players face major obstacles to pursuing a professional career due to lack of funding. To improve, they need to travel to the UK to play the best players and, as all qualifiers are staged in Britain, will need the money to essentially base themselves there for most of the year.

Very few players from outside Britain can make this financially sustainable, although World Snooker Tour recently announced it would be awarding £20,000 to those not earning this amount in prize money. This will certainly help, but the flat draw system which means you can play an all-time great in round one of a ranking event, where there is no prize money, does not. Germany’s Lukas Kleckers came up against O’Sullivan in the first round in Belfast.

After flight, hotel, sustenance and a 4-0 defeat he would have been out of pocket.

Even the most dedicated players face distractions previous generations simply didn’t have.

How many of us switch our phones off for long periods unless we absolutely have to?

Robertson believes finding the discipline to ignore the outside world has made a difference to one new star. “It’s finally clicked with Zhao Xintong,” he said. “I remember going to the academy and he’d be practising his long balls, but he’d have his mobile phone on the side, so he’d play his shot and then check social media or something, and I’d think this kid has got no chance unless he sorts that out, which he clearly has done.”

China has invested hugely in future talent. Zhao has won two ranking titles in the last year and Yan Bingtao, 22, has already won the Masters and developed a reputation as a formidable competitor. Zhou Yuelong, 24, reached the Northern Ireland Open final at the weekend.

But young players, of whatever nationality, require more than just support. They need inner steel, something almost indefinable driving them on inside.

Often the best players were shy kids who took refuge in the snooker table because no one could bother them there. It was as much a hiding place as a playground.

As McManus has said, “snooker is a good life, but it’s a hard life.” To reach the top you have to commit to locking yourself away indoors, eschewing the pleasures of the world beyond.

There are no team-mates. It can be lonely and mentally draining. In a world where connection is emphasised, it can seem an alienating activity. It’s clearly not for everyone.

O’Sullivan’s generation has set the most extraordinary standards. And their longevity means younger players now have to be better than ever to compete.

The rewards are there for those who persevere. New stars always emerge somehow. But they can’t just be good, or even brilliant. They need to be exceptional to threaten the best of the best.