'Don’t spoil your legacy' – Barry Hearn explains key difference between snooker icons Stephen Hendry and Jimmy White

ByEurosport

Published 11/12/2022 at 18:16 GMT

Barry Hearn has compared the difference between snooker icons Stephen Hendry and Jimmy White, who are competing on the main professional circuit via wildcards for their lifelong contribution to the green baize. The former World Snooker chairman Hearn wonders if seven-time world champion Hendry retains the hunger of his peak years. Stream top snooker action live on discovery+ and eurosport.co.uk

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Barry Hearn insists Jimmy White still has a strong desire to win snooker matches, but has questioned whether his old rival Stephen Hendry has a similar mindset during his debatable return to the sport.

Speaking ahead of the English Open at the Brentwood Centre in his native Essex, live on Eurosport and discovery+, former World Snooker Tour chairman Hearn has offered up his thoughts on the two snooker icons, who are competing on the main circuit via wildcards for their lifelong cue sports contributions.

While the evergreen White continues to impress at the age of 60 in reaching the last 32 of the UK Championship and German Masters this season, Hendry has struggled to recapture the consistency of his halcyon days when he lifted seven world titles between 1990 and 1999.

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Hendry defeated White in four world finals in that era, famously denying six-time runner-up White the world crown in 1994 when the Londoner missed a black off the spot in the final frame of an agonising 18-17 defeat.

He retired in 2012 after growing disillusioned with his game, but was given a wildcard by Hearn to resume playing in 2020.

The return has been a struggle with Hendry winning only three out of 14 matches while juggling his commitments as a TV pundit. He is again absent from the English Open this week.

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"If anyone deserves a wildcard for his contribution to snooker, it is Stephen Hendry," Hearn said in an interview with The Sportsman. "And even though Jimmy White never won the World Championship, the same applies to him

“The difference between the two is that Jimmy is desperately trying to win matches and put in the work. And with Stephen, the common-sense decision when you are talking about class people is ‘Are you serious? Don’t spoil your legacy by participating unless you feel you can be competitive.’

“And that is one for him to make his mind up rather than World Snooker, because our duty is to recognise and reward the contribution. So the decision, as it was with (six-time world champion) Steve Davis..he made his decision based on that principle and I would expect others to do the same.

“In other words, don’t embarrass yourself, don’t stay longer than you want to or are relevant. But the door is open to you provided you make the effort to be competitive.”