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Shaun Murphy claims Ronnie O'Sullivan has nothing worthwhile to say about the way snooker should be run. The 2005 world champion had his say in the wake of the sport's business supremo Barry Hearn arguing O'Sullivan "should know better" after likening the sport to a car boot sale. Hearn also rebuked the five-time world champion for suggesting the sport had lost respect in the public eye. When asked if the snooker authorities should be listening to O'Sullivan's state-of-the-game verdicts, Murphy said: "Absolutely not, no. "Ronnie's a genius and if he talks about snooker and how to play snooker, that's great, and I listen when he talks about snooker. "When he talks about how snooker should be run, you should completely turn off, and he should stick to playing snooker." Murphy and O'Sullivan could meet in the final of the Betway UK Championship in York on Sunday, with both having reached the fourth round. A 6-5 win for Murphy over Dominic Dale was a nervy affair on Tuesday. The controversial remarks made by O'Sullivan on Monday remained a hot topic, and World Snooker chairman Hearn told the 40-year-old to focus on entertaining crowds, rather than aiming barbs that could offend snooker's valuable stakeholders. O'Sullivan had said on Monday: "Snooker is becoming a nothing-type sport - it's kind of like a car boot sale but with the other sports it's like shopping at Harrods." He labelled it "cheap TV" and questioned its image, saying: "You look at Formula One and see beautiful-looking people and you look at snooker and think, 'God'." The ongoing tournament is being televised in the UK by the BBC and Eurosport, with O'Sullivan a regular pundit on the latter channel. Hearn said: "We mustn't be disrespectful to those people who are involved, sponsors and television companies, and the paying fans, to say 'this is a car boot sale of sport'. "I deal with lots and lots of different sports because there are lots of different sports who'd cut their arm off to be in the position snooker is in." When asked about O'Sullivan's verdict on the sport's image, Hearn told BBC Radio 5 Live: "As a famous man once said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. "I like normal people, I like working-class people who want to get value for money and want to be entertained by sportsmen who know their job is to entertain. "Ronnie's an entertainer and he should know better than that."
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