Zhao Xintong enjoyed a memorable stint at The Crucible after winning his first-ever snooker world title but he was at the heart of an awkward exchange between commentators watching him in action
Shaun Murphy admits he is still baffled by Dennis Taylor’s claim that his friends did not know who Zhao Xintong was. The Cyclone enjoyed a dream run towards his first-ever snooker world title at the Crucible earlier this month.
It signalled a terrific turnaround from the Chinese star, who only last year was in the middle of serving a 20-month suspension for being embroiled in a matchfixing scandal. But he was the topic of an awkward moment during the tournament between commentary pair Taylor and Murphy.
Speaking during one of Zhao’s matches, the former claimed that he had friends who did not know who he was. “They must be fairly new to the game then, Dennis, because we’re watching a former UK champion here,” Murphy responded.
Taylor then said: “They don’t live in the UK, Shaun, that’s what I was saying,” which was followed by a period of silence between the pair. With the dust now settled on the tournament, the 2005 world champion has said he’s still scratching his head at Taylor’s comment.
Speaking to the OneFourSeven podcast, he said: “I still don’t understand what the thing was. I don’t know. Sometimes you wonder whether some of these things are lost in translation a little bit, between generations. I don’t know if it was just a little throwaway funny line that Dennis thought he was saying.
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“I don’t know if it just got missed, but I didn’t really understand what he meant. I did say that to him off-mic between frames because he [brought it up]. I said, ‘Sorry, I didn’t really understand what you were trying to say.
“Xintong won the German Masters and the UK Championship [three] and [four] years ago’. The UK Championship, this isn’t 1984, it gets watched in almost every single country around the world.
“Last year, we had over a billion eyeballs on snooker throughout the season. A sixth or a seventh of the planet watched snooker at some stage last season. These might just be things that Dennis isn’t aware of, and other people of his vintage, they’re not aware of… I don’t know. But I just didn’t really understand, I didn’t get it.”
Murphy went on to claim that basic errors from commentators, and not being aware of the players taking to the table is a bugbear of his, but has not accused of Taylor of doing the same. He added: “That wasn’t the thing with Dennis. I still don’t understand how that blew up as big as it did. There was a little ruffle of a laugh that went round The Crucible, which is why I went quiet.
“Dennis is a friend of mine, it’s no axe to grind with Dennis. Dennis and I, we haven’t fallen out. There was no exchange of words. I think it was meant to be funny, but wasn’t funny. It’s not the first time Dennis has told a joke that wasn’t funny!”
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