IN THE week which saw the death of snooker legend Alex Higgins, the man who inherited his status as genius of the game says it must adapt or die.

Chigwell resident Ronnie O’Sullivan insists that snooker is ‘crying out’ for change.

“Everyone can see something needs to change,” triple world champion O’Sullivan told Guardian Series Sport.

“The public are crying out for it. The sponsors are crying out for it. The media are crying out for it.

“I think that for everyone it’s become a bit frustrating and I think it’s something that has to be addressed.

“Shorten the format or put the final on a bit earlier in the afternoon,” he suggested. “These days people don’t have time to sit down and watch a game until 3am in the morning,” he explained. “They need to get up for work or are worrying about what time China wakes up.

“When you look at it like that, the opportunity to watch a game is so much smaller now than it was, and I think now snooker is maybe suffering because it’s not adapted to people’s lifestyles.

“I think shorter formats will get people into it. They won’t think, seventeen days of snooker? I don’t have seventeen days.”

The person who can bring snooker up to date is Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn, according to O’Sullivan.

The sports mogul from Essex is chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) Power snooker is on his agenda and O’Sullivan, who lives in Manor Road, reckons the short and snappy format can save the game.

Power Snooker makes each frame into a race against the countdown clock for points. Shots must be played within 20 seconds of the player arriving at the table.

It is a far cry from the game which O’Sullivan grew up playing in Essex and east London. He learned in ‘posh clubs’ in Ilford and Barking during the 1980s when the game was last at its height, and Hearn was a prominent promoter.

His passion for it hit his studies at Wanstead School, in Colworth Road. “I wasn’t good at school,” admitted O’Sullivan, whose career earnings now top £6million.

“I used to pay people to do my homework. I used to tell them not to make it too good or the teacher would know that I hadn’t done it.”

His former teacher at Wanstead has a similar memory, calling the young O’Sullivan ‘a proper lad’.

“He was a good all-round athlete and played for the school in a number of sports,” said deputy headmaster Bryan Arkell.

“But I don’t think we can take credit for his snooker.”

But now the question is: can snooker match his passion for running with Chingford-based athletics club Orion Harriers?

“I don’t practice,” O’Sullivan revealed. “I’ve picked up my cue maybe four or five times in the last few months. But I need to pick it up soon as I’ve got a few tournaments coming up.

“I love the game, but I’m fed up with playing rubbish,” he continued “So if I continue to play rubbish, I can’t see myself doing it for too long.”

Sweeping change can not come soon enough to the sport for the Essex Exocet. The game surely cannot afford to lose its biggest star since Alex Higgins to boredom.

m O’Sullivan was talking at the launch of a scheme to provide 147,000 free junior memberships for Rileys snooker and pool clubs.