2018 Billiards World Champion and Arjuna awardee Sourav Kothari is writing a series of special reports on the ongoing World Snooker Championship in Sheffield, England exclusively for Times of India.
This is his article on the legendary and enigmatic Ronnie O’Sullivan winning his 6th World Snooker title beating Kyren Wilson in the final:
At the start of the 2020 World Snooker Championship, the game’s governing body managed to do justice to the hallowed Crucible Theatre as they succeeded to get live audience keeping the strictest vigil on Covid-19 protocols. Fans who buy tickets up to a year in advance were ecstatic to be able to watch snooker’s greatest show live in Sheffield.
However, due to adverse virus transmission data, live audience for sporting activities was again prohibited leaving fans to make do with television sets and mobile phones as the only means to watch snooker icons battle in a woefully empty Crucible Theatre.
Fast forward to the final and it was yet again the familiar sight of the one table situation in the mesmerizing Mecca of snooker. To the astonishment of snooker fans across the world, live audience trickled in to witness the greatness of a sportsman whose name over the years has become synonymous with his sport itself.
As the solemn name is yelled by the master-of-ceremony, preceded by metaphors and phrases “Blink and You’ll Miss It” and “The Rocket”, one can’t help but delight in the frenzy and outright hysteria of the fans yearning to witness their “Demigod” descend into the “Theatre of Dreams” and take center stage. The thundering roar and applause sets the ultimate background for the dramatic entry of the finest and the most celebrated snooker player of all times – Ronnie O’ Sullivan.

Ronnie O’Sullivan. (Photo credit: World Snooker Tour)
A tall man with charismatic good looks dressed in customary waistcoat bow-tie and “weapon” in hand emerges like an unfazed predator stalking his hunting ground with unwavering gaze, programmed to kill. His enigmatic demeanour seems to point, “I’m here, so let’s get on with the game – or get out of my way”.
After 16 days of gruelling snooker, tons of drama on and off the table, fierce rivalries and jaw-dropping moments, the World Snooker Championship finally came to its glorious climax with Ronnie O’Sullivan defeating Kyren Wilson 18-8 to lift the coveted world trophy for the sixth time in his illustrious career and taking home the half a million pound pay check.
O’ Sullivan best summarized his adversary saying, ‘Kyren is one of them players who can beat me Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, he’s a slayer”.
We don’t know for how long Ronnie will be around. For the time being though, his insatiable desire for precision and the perfect cue action seems to offer him the joy that transcends above all numbers and records. Ronnie is a peerless artist standing alone on a mountain top and his deeds abducted from times tyrannic motion will remain an inspiration forever.