Shaun Murphy is a high-profile British snooker player. He won the World Championship at Crucible Theatre in 2005 as well as many of snooker's biggest prizes.

Murphy visited Slovenia right before Christmas to take part in an exhibition competition together with Mark Selby, Judd Trump and Neil Robertson. He had been looking forward to the event: "Slovenia is one of the European countries that I have never been to before, is one of very few, so I was very excited to come here. Good friend of mine – very well-travelled friend of mine – told me if he was to buy somewhere to live in one of cities in Europe, it would be Ljubljana.”

He also enjoys watching other sports: "I do watch the Winter Olympics every four years. Whenever I watch ski jumping, I always wonder: how do they discover that talent? How do they know they can do that? How do they discover they can fly down the ramp at such a speed and then fly through the air? It's absolutely incredible. I'm a big follower of sport, I'm a big Manchester United fan, I like to follow their results as much as I can."

It’s quite common for football players to try and fool the judges, but that’s not how it works in snooker, explains Murphy: "If I make a foul invisible to everybody else, it is my responsibility as a sportsman to own up and say it was my mistake, that was my error. In football, you know, the ball goes out of play, both players will always appeal for the ball. The referee calls foul, all the players swarm the referee – it is very strange world where that has become the norm."

Snooker’s most spectacular venue is Crucible Theatre, where the world championship takes place every year. According to the “magician”, the players love its atmosphere: "Because it has that one thing that you can't buy - which is a history. The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield this year will celebrate its 40th year of hosting our world's snooker championship. And that history is not for sale."

However, rumours about the possibility of re-locating the championship to China have already circulated: "And that may happen. I think that money and the commercial world of sports will someday take over snooker. If bigger venue is found, bigger arena is found with sponsors willing to pay more money, I think maybe the tournament might move. Because the Crucible Theatre can only have 970 people in the arena. It's very small backstage, it's small for corporate hospitality. That hospitality is what makes sport work these days. Every other sport has massive corporate hospitality. The Crucible Theatre isn't big enough for our biggest event that is world championship," Murphy agrees.

The numbers of tournaments have increased substantially in the past decade. The English star is glad to have many opportunities to compete but warns: "I do think there are too many players on world tour. I think world tour should be more elitist, should be the best of the best to entertain massive crowds around the world. We need secondary challenge tour, where top amateurs and lover rank professionals can learn their trade and game. In football we have Premier League, Championship, League 1... Snooker – we are the only sport that doesn't have that and we need it."

Match fixing is currently one of the most pressing issues in sports and can also occur in snooker: "It's very difficult to talk about this, because is very subjective topic. Is it easy to fix a match? Yes! If I want to go out and lose on purpose, I can. But I personally as a man would never do that. When my little boy becomes a man, I want to look him in the eye and tell him I tried my best every single day of my life. That's the way I was brought up by my mother and father. But not everybody is the same. Not everybody is in stable financial situation. Some people need money, we are only human. We are only subject to our human frailties. Sometimes people make mistake," concluded Shaun Murphy.

You are more than welcome to listen to the entire conversation below:

Slavko Jerič, MMC; translated by K. Z.