EXCLUSIVE: Radzi Chinyanganya is often sat opposite Ronnie O’Sullivan on Eurosport’s TV coverage – and insists he is one of the perfect people to interview

Ronnie O’Sullivan is a dream to interview – providing you can empathise with the mood he is in.

That’s according to Eurosport’s snooker presenter Radzi Chinyanganya, who regularly poses the questions to the maverick snooker superstar.

O’Sullivan’s quick wit and brutally honest opinions have helped make him a one-of-a-kind sports personality, particularly when you couple it with his record-breaking haul of trophies on the baize.

He is enjoying the season of his life, having picked up the UK Championship, Masters and World Grand Prix titles all in the past couple of months.

“Ronnie is a really interesting one,” Radzi tells Daily Star Sport. “There are 128 professional players on tour. If someone stops me on the street, they ask me about two players: Ronnie O’Sullivan and Jimmy White.

“And it’s nothing to do with anything on the table, they want to know about things off the table. Both of those guys are as sound as you like.

“If you flip back to the UK Championship and watch my interview with Ronnie, he has just won a major title and he is not bothered. He was more bothered about the fact we gave him two Snickers, a bag of cheese and onion crisps and a Diet Coke. He was made up with that!

“You just have to know the person that you are talking to and you have to be able to read that person to be able to understand what kind of Ronnie I am going to be speaking to. Is it a tired Ronnie? A frustrated Ronnie? A happy Ronnie?

“When you are speaking with someone, whoever they might be, you have to try and have empathy.

“If you are going to push and probe, you try and be mindful of how they are thinking, so you still achieve the objective, but sometimes you attract bees with honey rather than vinegar.”