‘He probably can’t be bothered’ – Shaun Murphy slams Stephen Hendry over Baipat Siripaporn snub

The Thai superstar is the reigning women’s world champion and takes on Judd Trump at the Champion of Champions tournament on Thursday.

Hendry, who is the pundit for the tournament on ITV4, was asked by host Jill Douglas whether he has been impressed by Baipat this year.

The Scotsman admitted he had never seen her play, which was met with an unimpressed “Oh Stephen” reply from Douglas.

One man who was far from impressed with the admission was Shaun Murphy, who spoke about the controversy on the OneFourSeven podcast.

“We’re singling out Stephen Hendry this time because he said it,” said Murphy (as quoted by LiveSnooker).

“He’s not the only person who’s said it. I think it’s poor, don’t you? I think it’s really poor.

“When you’re in that position, and you’re stood in a studio, or you’re in commentary, you have to make it your business to find out a little bit about the people you’re going to be covering.

“I thought it was poor, but there’s a few of them. He’s not on his own, and they seem to wear it like a badge of honour.

“I don’t really get it. But Stephen’s old, he’s grumpy – he just probably can’t be bothered.

“He’s got his YouTube channel, but does he know how YouTube works? He won’t know how to use it. He wouldn’t know how snooker.org works, he wouldn’t know his way around CueTracker. He’s never analysed any play from any player that he’s covering.

“He basically got that job because he won seven world titles, and that’s it.”