World number one Judd Trump has criticised snooker’s image leading up to the World Championship, saying the sport is “stuck in a rut”.

The 2019 world champion suggested one such change would be to make snooker more appealing by allowing players to wear more trendy clothes during tournaments rather than waistcoats, which is snooker’s traditional look.

Trump, winner of five ranking titles this season, made his thoughts clear when speaking to The Metro newspaper several days ago and called for snooker bosses “to move with the times”.

“It’s kind of stuck in a rut a little bit, it’s fallen behind some of the other sports and not enough is being done on the whole image of snooker,” he said.

He added: “I’ve got the golf on and their clothing is all changing, becoming more lenient for the younger generation.

“I don’t want to be stuck in a waistcoat walking to the Crucible, it’s not cool to be wearing that nowadays, if I think that then I know people younger than me won’t want to be dressed like that either.

“Golfers are wearing hoodies, got Air Max shoes on. This was all good 30 years ago but to make new stars and make the game popular again in the UK and bring it back to where it was you need to move with the times.

‘To be honest, a lot of my friends aren’t big snooker fans. They just watch it for me and they don’t want to be seeing people dressed in waistcoats, it should be more appealing to young people.”

Trump will be looking to win his second World Championship title in the coming weeks after falling in the quarter-finals last year to finalist Kyren Wilson.

The draw for first round of the World Championship takes place on Thursday.

Featured Image: Picture by Monique Limbos