John Higgins reckons Ronnie O’Sullivan only uses his controversial chalk of choice to put his opponents off their game.
A topic that could scare potential snooker fans off the sport for good, but chalk was a big talking point at the World Championship this year.
O’Sullivan still chalks his cue with a brand that used to be widely used but now almost all players have moved away from.
The vast majority of professionals now use Finnish brand Taom, which has largely eliminated kicks from the game and does not get into the cloth as much.
A kick is a poor contact between two balls, made more common by some types of chalk, which can see the object ball move at an unexpected angle.
They are nightmarish for players but the Rocket is sticking to his guns, which Higgins reckons is just a tactic to unsettle his opponents.
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The Wizard of Wishaw reckons O’Sullivan – as the best to ever do it – feels he can handle the conditions better than anyone else, so is happy to wind his opponent up with the controversial chalk.
‘It was well-documented at the Crucible that O’Sullivan uses a different chalk to everybody else. It’s brutal,’ Higgins said on Not Another Football Podcast.
‘But I think he does it to just put everybody else off when he doesn’t need to, but it’s just a wee thing in the head because he knows it messes with our heads.’
Higgins beat O’Sullivan 13-12 in the second round at the Crucible this year, with the Scot experiencing the chalk situation first hand over 25 frames.
‘It’s a nightmare with kicks,’ he said. ‘The very last shot, I potted a red and I was just rolling through for the black and I’ve got a massive kick and I think I shouted “Oh my God” because your head’s gone into a jam jar.
‘I think he does it because he’s got the best cue ball out of anybody so he can override all these little kicks. So it’s as if he’s like, “right, try and deal with this while I can deal with my own.”
‘It might not be. Listen, I’ve never sat down and asked him the question. Well, I think we have sometimes, but he just thinks with that chalk he gets more grip on the cue ball, that’s what he says. He says he’s tried all the chalk you are using and he feels as if he miscues more. That’s what he says.’
Former world champion Neil Robertson was very outspoken about O’Sullivan’s chalk at the Crucible this year, calling for a ban on it.
‘Ban that crap, please!’ Robertson said after beating Chris Wakelin in the second round of the World Championship. ‘All the players hate it, it destroys the game. You get kicks, you get bounces. Not only that, it makes an absolute mess of the table.
‘I know he [O’Sullivan] is good friends with Damien Hirst, but it’s like he’s doing artwork with chalk all over the cloth.’
The Australian, though, did not have the same view as Higgins as he does not reckon the Rocket does it to bother his opponent.
‘I don’t think he does it to put off anyone, he’s not that way inclined at all, but it’s not great,’ said Robertson. ‘It’s hard enough to play Ronnie O’Sullivan, but he’s the only player, just about, on tour who uses that chalk. Hopefully they bring in a ban, but there’s only a couple of players who use it.’
After beating O’Sullivan in April, Higgins said: ‘He uses the other chalk, so that’s what makes the table play a little bit bouncy and it’s all messy and different things, so it’s tough to play against, but you’ve just got to try and get it out of your mind.
‘Why wouldn’t you take the advantage when you have got a better cue ball control than every other player?
‘So why wouldn’t you have that advantage? Because if you’re going in at a level playing field, everybody’s using the same chalk, no chalk marks, everything, it maybe gives players more chance of beating them.
‘Now, that’s what people do in every sport, they try to use the little advantage. I don’t know, you’d obviously have to ask Ronnie’s real feelings about that, about using old chalk.’
On the Not Another Football Podcast, Higgins added that motivation is not soaring during the off-season, but he will be back to work on tour soon enough.
‘I’ve not picked my cue up since losing in the World Championship,’ he said. ‘Near the end of my career, I just feel as if, if I didn’t pick another snooker cue up, I wouldn’t care.
‘My next tournament is the end of July, the Shanghai Masters, then it starts all over again.’