Imagine Tiger Woods intentionally snapping a favourite putter at Augusta or Roger Federer changing racket brand on the eve of Wimbledon. Both incidents will surely remain in the realms of imagination, but on Friday Ronnie O’Sullivan engaged in actual sporting self-destruction. Deeply frustrated with a sport he views as “dying” and “in a downward spiral”, O’Sullivan smashed his cue in a fit of pique at home in Chigwell, Essex.

It was not any old cue, but the one that O’Sullivan used to win the World Championship last year, the piece of wood that has literally been by his side on his ascent to the apex of the world rankings and the money-list.

Many players are inseparable from a particular cue throughout their lives. Fred Davis, world champion in the Forties and Fifties, never thought of jettisoning his old faithful during a career that began as a teenager and ended as an octogenarian.

For mere mortals, such an act would be tantamount to professional suicide, but after only two days and one hour of practice with his replacement cue, O’Sullivan somehow beat Joe Perry 6-5 in the last 16 of the Masters at Wembley Arena yesterday.

The crowd of 2,000 were unaware of Sullivan’s bizarre preparation as they watched the star of the show performing and, at times, playing well with equipment that inevitably felt completely alien.

Despite being “in the dark” with the cue’s reactions on certain shots, especially long pots, O’Sullivan compiled two century breaks, 100 and 118, to steal frames that Perry should have won and tactically control the decider. “I smashed my cue to smithereens. I just wish I’d recorded the whole thing and put it on YouTube. I didn’t really want to play this game so I thought, ‘it’s either get rid of my table or destroy the cue’, ” O’Sullivan, who received a substitute model from John Parris, the renowned cue-maker, said. It is not the first time that O’Sullivan has flouted convention by intentionally parting company with a cue. After losing 17-11 to Graeme Dott in the semi-finals of the 2006 World Championship, he presented a member of the Crucible audience with a cue on departing the arena.

However, rather than a lack of form, O’Sullivan’s present disillusionment stems from a heartfelt opinion that snooker is in terminal decline. Indeed, the Masters is not sponsored and, even more worrying, no backer has yet been found for the forthcoming World Championship.

“Snooker needs to be privatised and run by someone with entrepreneurial skills. They need to be more dynamic and attuned to the modern world. The game is in a downward spiral,” O’Sullivan, snooker’s most vital drawcard by a distance, said. “I’m not inspired by any tournaments apart from the Masters and the World Championship. There’s no buzz. I just treat it as a job.

“I’ve got no enthusiasm. I’m not going to Ireland for a £30,000 first prize or play in Bahrain in front of two people. I’d rather be at home with my kids.”

O’Sullivan maintains that the saviour of the sport could be Barry Hearn, whose success in sports promotion and television is undeniable. “If someone like Barry took on the game he could do for us what he’s done for darts,” O’Sullivan said. “We need someone who knows what the public wants because snooker’s been left behind.”

O’Sullivan is scheduled to return to Wembley on Friday for a quarter-final against Ali Carter or Peter Ebdon, a director of the sport’s governing body, the WPBSA. While O’Sullivan recovered from 5-4 down to beat Perry, who missed a straightforward pink on the verge of winning 6-4, Stephen Maguire, the world No 2, reached the quarter-finals with a 6-5 win over Dott from 5-2 in arrears.

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