Shaun Murphy has called out snooker stars for “gamesmanship” which he believes is a growing “epidemic” in the game.
The recent Masters champion believes that many of his colleagues are deliberately slowing the game down in order to hamstring their opponents, by leaving the table during matches.
Murphy believes that players are purposefully using toilet breaks to slow play down when their rivals are in rhythm, in order to gain an advantage when trailing in a match.
“Toilet breaks. We have to talk about the epidemic of toilet breaks that are spoiling snooker action,” Murphy said on his onefourseven podcast. “It is now getting ridiculous, guys. It is getting totally out of hand. It is ridiculous how many times players are leaving the arena to go to the loo.
“And here’s where it gets spicy, because most of these exits from the arena have got nothing to do with players needing to go for a wee, it’s good old-fashioned gamesmanship.
“My opponent last week went to the toilet after the first frame of the match, then after the fifth frame after the interval. You’ve had 20-odd minutes to be ready to play. What’s going on? It’s getting ridiculous. It’s a joke.”
Express Sport has reached out to the World Snooker Tour for comment on whether action could be taken to curb such “gamesmanship”.
Murphy is not alone in his stance against players taking unnecessary breaks in play. In 2019, several stars complained to World Snooker about the misuse of toiler breaks to disrupt the flow of a match.
Neil Robertson reacted to Murphy’s complaints on X (formerly known as Twitter), calling for a new rule cutting down on toilet breaks to be trialled.
He wrote: “In the 2012 Masters, we the players were told before the event started to limit toilet or ‘I’m bottling it and need to leave the arena’ breaks to two per match.
“Which leaves you what ever you do before the match, two breaks during and another during the interval after four frames. Players stuck to it and there were no issues whatsoever with players needing to go mid-frame or anything like that. 90 per cent of players I see are standing there like a constipated person trying to squeeze out a drop put a rule in place and trial it.”
With matches and sessions lasting hours at a time, players have a right to use the restroom, but Barry Hearn previously did confirm that new rules could be put in place. From the 2013 season, the snooker supremo introduced a maximum of two breaks per session.
The 2023 World Championship finalists Mark Selby and Luca Brecel both sided with Murphy and felt that changes were needed.
“Yes, it can get too much,” Selby said two years ago. “I think they should bring a rule in that, if you desperately need to go, they should cap it at a certain amount of time.
“There should be a limit on the number of times you can go, unless you are desperate. That is the thing, it comes down to the person and you have got to trust. It is tough, I suppose.”
Brecel added: “Yes, because even today, I was like, ‘how many times will I need to go to the toilet?’ If you need to go, you need to go.”
Ronnie O’Sullivan, meanwhile, is in favour of unlimited breaks as long as play is not interrupted: “I think the player should be allowed to go for as many toilet breaks as they can after the game as long as once the balls are set up you’re back.
“The problem is if you go to the toilet and once the balls are set up and [your opponent] has to wait two-three minutes, then I see that as not very good.
“If you want to get out and get back quickly before the balls are set up I don’t see what the issue is, you’re not interrupting the play on it or anything.”
