NEIL ROBERTSON reckons elite players are going to thank him for speaking out about the size of pockets on the World Snooker Tour.
There have been numerous complaints over the past few months about the playing conditions in ranking tournaments.
There have been a record number of 147 breaks this campaign and 11 different winners of the 11 events since July.
The very best cueists all want tighter pockets, which decrease the number of flukes by opponents and rewards those with accuracy and precision.
Robertson, 43, has a powerful voice in the sport, having joined the Players Board of the WPBSA in the summer.
And Australia’s 2010 world champion reckons raising the issue in meetings has finally forced through change, particularly in this week’s prestigious Triple Crown situation.
Speaking after a 6-1 second-round demolition job over China’s Wu Yize, Robertson said: “I feel as though the last 10 years there have been many more events with much bigger pockets.
“You have a group of players who can play great even on those pockets and a group that can’t play great on those pockets.
“What I’ve seen so far are a lot of misses that I used to see in my first 10 years as a professional that have been going in.
“It’s a shock to the system to quite a lot of the players coming through who have not experienced what tables used to be like.
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“For too long people have not been accurate going down the rail and balls have still been going in.
“There are a group of top players I have been speaking to this week who are like, ‘thank god, it rewards accuracy’.
“There are too many matches where people make three or four centuries and you think: ‘Did they actually reach that level of quality?’
“It’s keeping everyone honest. There will be a lot of professionals at home thinking, thanks Neil for speaking out.
“It has been an issue in the game that players have been talking about, especially in China where people are having inflated results.
“It’s like someone going out and shooting 14 under par in a round of golf because the course is just way too easy.”
