Could snooker be doing more for players from troubled backgrounds and from different cultures?

gormdubhgorm

Ok we know Ronnie O'Sullivan is the very obvious exception. He managed to get through his health issues and unstable home life to more than fulfilled his potential IMO. I did note that Barry Hearn acted as Ronnie's manager/father figure back in 1993 when he won his first title. Hearn seemed genuinely delighted for O'Sullivan, and he spoke after Ronnie won in the post match.

But I was looking up O'Sullivan's long wikipedia page that I noticed a player who I never heard of had taken one of Ronnie's records from him In 2018 Sean Maddocks from Liverpool then aged 15 became the youngster player to get a 147 at amateur level.

I never heard of him, and wondered why.

He was on the pro tour from 2020-2022 but dropped out of it.

In this article his upbringing was described as "challenging" apparently had to live with his grandparents.

https://merseysportlive.co.uk/2022/04/05/sean-maddocks-liverpool-snooker-star-in-cue-for-success-at-the-crucible/

But I was thinking shouldn't snooker have some sort of mentor system for these type of lads, fellas like Doherty, Reardon, Davis. Old snooker pros with that solid mentality just to keep the young lad focused give him a role model? Not just from a snooker coaching point of view.

I suppose the overseas players would come into that category of needed to be kept an eye on, and nudged along in the correct way. Being so far from home, different culture etc

It did occur to me that if the Chinese lads had some like that to act as mentor - say Ding for example. If he was checking up on them, maybe some would not have fallen into that match fixing scandal?