Snooker, billiards are on their deathbeds -- Yasin

Snooker, billiards are on their deathbeds -- Yasin
S MAGESHWARAN

BANGALORE, FEB 23: Yasin Merchant. The name is almost synonymous with snooker success in India. An Asian title in 1989 and runner-up the following year made one hope that Yasin will get the kind of success that the likes of Wilson Jones, Michael Ferreira and Geet Sethi got in billiards.

Excerpts from an interview:

Q: Why have Indian snooker pros not done well? Especially when compared to the billiards pros?

A: There are hardly 50 billiards professionals all over the World. Half of them are Indians. Somewhere or the other someone or the other will do well.

Well, I don't think even they (billiards pros) are doing that well right now. Except for Geet (Sethi), may be. Even Geet has not had major success in the recent years. It's the Englishmen who are improving. Also, billiards has been a tradition with us. Wilson Jones passed it on to Michael Ferreira. Michael to Geet Sethi and so on. And let's face it, there's much less competition in billiards as compared to snooker.

Q: Could you elaborate on that?

A: When I joined the pro circuit in snooker, there were 880 professionals. Which means I could be any where, even 880th. It is that much tougher to climb that ladder.

Q: The system in professional circuit changed. Any comments?

A: Earlier, there used to be top 64 players. If I had to get into a tournament, I had to come through qualifying rounds. I had to win may be 10-12 rounds to reach that stage. That is when I get to play on television. Now they have closed the doors again. Now there are 128 pros. They are taking 64 from outside. That's 129 to 192. They will be playing the top pros. It's a lot tougher for the outstation professionals. The expenses are going to mount up. Earlier, they had the qualifying rounds for all the tournaments at one go. So you know in how many tournaments you make the main draw well in advance. Also you would have made enough money and points to come back to India and return to England only for those tournaments you have qualified.

Q: What are the merits/demerits of the new system?

A: I think the earlier system was a lot better; where you could stay in England for 2-3 months and finish the qualifying rounds at one shot. That meant your expenses were limited to those months. And if you qualify, you would have made enough money to play the main draw. But under the new system, where you have to shuttle between India and England for every tournament, the airfare itself is mind-boggling.

Q: How do you view snooker as a sport in today's world?

A: Snooker as a sport has reached a saturation point. There is a certain amount of growth horizontally, but not in any major way. Agreed that the days are gone when snooker was popular only in the UK. Many countries in Europe, Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan and may be China to an extent have taken up to the game. But I don't see anything beyond a very few new entrants.

Q: What about snooker in India?

A: It's on its deathbed. A lot of people are saying pool is going to revive snooker and all that. But I'm yet to see it happening. They say people are going to get fed up with pool and graduate into snooker and billiards and all that. But I'll wait for it to happen. Snooker and billiards have a very bleak future in the country. Unless something drastic happens to revive it, this game will go out of the system.

Q: But the government has upgraded snooker into a priority sport?

A: I know that. But just by playing the Asian Games once every four years, and therefore pushing the sport into the `A' category will not achieve anything.

Q: What do we need?

A: Regular tournaments. How else am I going to develop? How is a junior going to develop to face competition. How is he going to face Stephen Hendry? With the kind of competition I am getting today, I don't even consider it worth my while to spend my time practising. Might as well as do something that's going to pay me. All I have is the Nationals, my State selections and one Alpic-Om Agrawal Memorial to look forward to. Is that all you are going to practice for? You spend six hours a day all the year round just for that!

Q: What about snooker talent in the country? Do we have it in us to take on the World?

A: Talent, yes. Development, no. There are a couple of very talented youngsters coming up right now. Like Ritesh Shah, Rishab Thukral, Manan Chandra and Pankaj Advani, the hot property in Bangalore right now. But how they are going to develop and whether they develop at all is a question only time can answer.

Q: Finally, a word on the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI), the controlling body of the sport in the country.

A: I have never looked it into the accounts of the BSFI. So I can't say anything about their claims that there is a paucity of funds is. But if their claims are genuine, why haven't they tried to bring in money into the game. Look at Pakistan, a major sponsor has been found to run the entire cuesports activity. It's no wonder then that Pakistan has more talent than us right now. The argument of not having enough money can be accepted if the efforts are made, which I don't think the BSFI has done. You have to run around and convince the sponsor of the value for his money. Efforts have to be made to televise the game better. If the BSFI would have made efforts to pump in money and promote the sport properly, I don't think the game will be in this pathetic state it is right now.