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NewsTranscript
00:00Where do you see snooker in five or ten years from now and what are your thoughts on the
00:05Middle East's influence on the sport?
00:07I think the Middle East's influence for the players is going to be great.
00:11I mean you've seen the financial rewards already on offer in the tournaments that are running
00:17in Saudi Arabia, so if I was playing nowadays I would obviously love that.
00:22My only fear is obviously the World Championship going there.
00:28Do we want to watch a World Championship where there's no one sat there watching for a lot
00:31of the sessions?
00:32I'm sure the final would be well supported but for 17 days will it be full every match?
00:39I think the future's good for snooker in terms of playing-wise, player-wise, I reckon probably
00:46half the top 16 will be Chinese.
00:50You can't see John, Mark, Ronnie, it can't go on forever.
00:54Your queue famously got broken into bits during a flight, were you headed to a tournament
00:58at a time and if so did you still play in it with some random queue?
01:02I was actually heading home from a tournament from Thailand, it got broken in two pieces
01:07and wasn't able to be fixed.
01:09I won seven world titles, 70 tournaments with that, post that queue breaking I think I won
01:15four or five titles, so it wasn't a great moment in my career.
01:20In the past you have stated that you essentially sacrificed potential quality of your safety
01:25game in favour of attacking play, looking back do you think you would have won more
01:29world titles if you had put some more focus on your safety game?
01:33I wouldn't have won more world titles because of it, I'd have won more matches, there's
01:37no doubt about it.
01:39My shot selection definitely cost me matches, especially near the end of my career when
01:43my game wasn't supporting my shot choice, but no I would never have changed my game,
01:49my game was all about attack.
01:50Who in your opinion is one of the key up and coming players who people should keep an eye on?
01:56This is a bit different than up and coming, Zhao Xintong has obviously been banned from
02:02playing for three years, he's coming back this year so he's the one you should keep
02:06an eye on because I think he has got the talent, the flair to maybe not dominate snooker for
02:14the next five, ten, fifteen years but certainly play a major part in it.
02:18You mentioned recently Steve Davis has tweaked your cue action, can you talk us through how
02:22much of an impact it has had and will we see you again?
02:25We were in China, Steve and I, playing exhibitions for four days and basically I was Butcher
02:30in so many easy shots.
02:31I could putt the long ones quite easily, Steve funnily enough can't putt the long ones,
02:38he says his eyesight's gone so I said to him between his cue action and my eyesight we
02:42could go a long way.
02:43You've been very vocal about your love of China, in particular the food scene there,
02:47do you have a particular favourite dish or city or any strong recommendations on anything
02:52that is a must try out there?
02:54I love going to China, I've been going since 1987, I've probably been now to about 80 cities
02:59in China, I've probably arguably seen more of China than any other western person living
03:07in the world, I don't know.
03:09I've eaten some pretty random things, anteater, bear's claw, wolf, to name but a few, turned
03:21down pig's fallopian tube, I thought that was a step too far, but generally I just love
03:27it.
03:28If you could retake any shot in your career which would it be?
03:30The black against Williams in the Masters final, it would shut him up.
03:34What would your walk on music be these days?
03:37Being tuned to Curb Your Enthusiasm.
03:39If the snooker god said that you could go back in time and be guaranteed to win another
03:43world championship but to do so you had to never speak to Willow, Mark Williams, and
03:49give up all the memories, fun and any chance of being mates with him throughout your life
03:52would you?
03:53Yes.
03:54Yes.
03:55How did you discover Neutral Milk Hotel?
03:58Neil Fultz, he's the go to for, I always ask him what are you listening to now because
04:04he has got a very broad random music taste and a lot of the stuff he likes I like so
04:11yeah, that's from Neil Fultz.