Nationals in Ahmedabad

By Our Sports Reporter

NEW DELHI, OCT. 24. World champion Geet Sethi has rescued the 2002 National billiards and snooker championship from being cancelled for want of sponsors.

The Nationals, to be organised by the Gujarat State Billiards Association (GSBA) after Geet Sethi persuaded the GSBA to proceed with the venture, will be held in Ahmedabad in January.

The final dates of the championship, which will run for more than 20 days, would be announced next week, said the vice-president of the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI), Mr. Ravi K. Tandon.

The BSFI, at its executive committee meeting last week, took up the issue, but there was no concrete proposal from any of its affiliates. ``Gujarat stepped in after Sethi offered to organise sponsorships for the prestigious National,'' said Mr. Tandon.

The 68th edition of the Nationals was in doubt early this month after the Players' Association, which had bid to host the event in Pune, expressed its inability to conduct it. Consequently, the BSFI urged its affiliate State associations to take up the responsibility. Only the Delhi Billiards and Snooker Association (DBSA) and the Karnataka State Billiards and Snooker Association (KSBSA) showed interest, but both had their hands full.

The DBSA is to host the National pool championship here from December 14 to 18, while the KSBSA will be the host for the 2002 Asian billiards championship in Bangalore in February. With the billiards and snooker Nationals requiring commitment upwards of Rs. 15 lakh, both the DBSA and the KSBSA found it difficult to arrange such an amount in a short time.

In the meanwhile, the BSFI received a shot in the arm with the Sports Authority of India (SAI) sanctioning four preparatory camps for next year's Asian Games in Pusan. The SAI generally sanctions only two preparatory camps per sport ahead of any major event.

At a meeting with the SAI director general, Mr. Shekhar Dutta, on Tuesday, Mr. Tandon impressed upon him that since the cue sport had four disciplines, just two camps were not sufficient to prepare players for the Asian Games. India won seven medals including two golds in cue sports at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games.

Subsequently four camps were allowed, and they would start soon after the conclusion of the Asian billiards championship.

It has also been decided to hold two camps in Kolkata and two in Bangalore, and they will go on till August next year.

The meeting was also attended by national coach Michael Ferriera and Sethi.

SAI has also agreed to look into the request of the BSFI about a promising cueist, Nalin Patel, being considered to represent India. Nalin is a resident of India and tax payer also, but holds a British passport.

As part of the preparations for the Asian Games, the Government has allowed the import of four pool and two carombole tables at 75:25 cost basis. The tables, conforming to international standards, and cues will be imported to provide the Indian cueists a chance to perform better.

``We participated in the 1998 Asian Games' carombole and pool event even without practising on proper tables. But with the effort of the DBSA, which conducted carombole Nationals, the scene is looking up,'' said Sethi.

``With the motivation and support we are getting from all quarters it has cast on us high responsibility to perform well in the next Asian Games,'' he added.

Coach Ferriera was happy with the concerted efforts and said that it would yield positive results.

SAI has also cleared the BSFI proposal to hire foreign coaches for pool and carombole. It has, however, asked the BSFI to ascertain how it would like to utilise them-whether to send the players abroad for training in Chinese Taipei and Japan or to get the coach here during the preparatory camps.

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Section  : Sport
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