World Championship 2021 - 'Snooker is stuck in a rut' - Judd Trump says sport has 'fallen behind'
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Updated 09/04/2021 at 15:26 GMT
Judd Trump believes that the whole image of snooker is stuck in the past in many respects and the game has "fallen behind some of the other sports" in terms of progressing. The Bristolian has said that, in his opinion, "not enough is being done" to ensure that the sport does not continue to be "stuck in a rut" with old traditions.
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World number one Judd Trump believes snooker is "stuck in a rut" and the sport has "fallen behind" in terms of its image.
The 31-year-old, who clinched the world title in 2019, has said that "not enough is being done on the whole image of snooker" and it must move with the times.
"It’s kind of stuck in a rut a little bit, it’s fallen behind some of the other sports and not enough is being done on the whole image of snooker," Trump told the Metro. "I’ve got the golf on and their clothing is all changing, becoming more lenient for the younger generation.
People don’t want to go around dressed in waistcoats nowadays, they did 40 years ago but snooker is falling behind, stuck in their own ways and other sports have moved on.
"I don’t want to be stuck in a waistcoat walking to the Crucible, it’s not cool to be wearing that nowadays, if I think that then I know people younger than me won’t want to be dressed like that either.
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"Golfers are wearing hoodies, got Air Max shoes on. This was all good 30 years ago but to make new stars and make the game popular again in the UK and bring it back to where it was you need to move with the times.
"Keep the trousers, shoes, just maybe polo shirts or something more relaxed and different. You don’t need to be dressed in a five-piece suit every time you go to a game. It would attract more sports sponsors, it’s difficult to attract different sponsors when you’re doing the same thing year-in-year-out.
"To be honest, a lot of my friends aren’t big snooker fans. They just watch it for me and they don’t want to be seeing people dressed in waistcoats, it should be more appealing to young people.
"There’s not enough trying out new things in snooker for me at the moment, it’s all the same every season, not enough excitement, not enough different dimensions," he continued.
"It’s how they advertise games. A lot of younger players are coming through in this World Championship and the social media all seems to be about people who were popular 30 years ago.
They can’t keep these players in the spotlight forever, they haven’t done anything for 10-15 years. Everything they’re doing is 15 years out of date and not enough is being done to advertise the younger players in the game.
"Things are never going to change unless they take a risk on advertising to different people. Otherwise you’ll get to a point where the older generation of snooker fans will be gone and you’re stuck with nobody because they haven’t appealed to the younger generation now.
"I do like Eurosport’s coverage, [presenter] Andy Goldstein does an amazing job. I think the BBC need to mix it up a little bit more and get a few different personalities in the commentary box, maybe current players, get them in and ask them some stuff.
"There’s no talk about the Golden Age of golf when the Masters is on, or the Golden Age of tennis at Wimbledon, it’s just about the here and now. Snooker is too much about 20-30 years ago. Is the standard better now? Nobody cares. The standard is what it is now and all that matters is the tournament coming up."
The 2021 World Championship gets underway on April 17 and the Crucible is set to be at capacity for the final in Sheffield from May 2-3.
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You can watch every match of the World Championship live and ad-free on the Eurosport App and eurosport.co.uk. Download the Eurosport app now for iOS and Android.
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