Carambole makes its bow

FOR a first time national event, the organisers could not have asked for a better star cast. The first National Carambole championship organised (very well I may add) by the Delhi Billiards & Snooker Association (DBSA) attracted the top cueists of the country from billiards, snooker and pool.

There was Yasin Merchant, the bespectacled Asian snooker champion, who recently won his second Asian snooker title. Then there was Ashok Shandilya, the double Asian gold medallist in billiards, Devendra Joshi, and Subhash Agrawal, former world amateur runner-up and winner of the 1996 UK Open billiards title. There was the fiery and indomitable Dharminder Lilly, the National pool champion from Punjab accompanied by fellow-state cueist, Alok Kumar, Delhi's own Manan Chandra, the world junior snooker runner-up and yours truly.

Michael Ferreira had flown down from Mumbai for the press conference before flying out to Malaysia. So why was there so much hype, excitement and interest towards a sport which few follow in the country? For one, the sport has been included once again as a medal event. And being similar to billiards, the DBSA and the Billiards & Snooker Federation of India decided that the cueists in the country should be given adequate exposure to the sport.

Until recently, there was only one Carambole table in the country. Imported some years ago when Delhi hosted an international multi cue sport event, it had been gathering dust for the last five years. However, the DBSA arranged for a few tables to be imported and then Billiardco quickly replicated the same to give enough tables for a preliminary coaching camp, which allowed many cueists to practise prior to the main tournament.

The game is quite different from traditional billiards. The table is very fast, the balls huge when you compare them to billiard or snooker balls. It logically follows that one has to use a much heavier and thicker cue. And for someone who has played on a billiards table the fact that there are no pockets is quite disconcerting at times. As such the touch and feel of the balls is different but the game requires a lot of cue power, a good cue action and most importantly knowledge of the angles. The only scoring stroke is a 'cannon', which necessitates your cue ball making contact with the other two object balls. The catch is that the cue ball must touch at least three cushions after making contact with the first object ball and before striking the second object ball.

I must admit that I was a bit sceptical about our chances of having any realistic shot at the medal list in this sport. Having partnered Mukesh Rehani at the last Asian Games at Bangkok, I was witness to and at the receiving end of some exquisite control exhibited by cueists from Philippines, Korea and Japan.

But my scepticism was converted to hope by the superb performances of players like Lilly, Manan Chandra and Siddarth Anand. All these players adapted so well. Towards the concluding stages of the event Lilly who defeated Chandra in the final to win the first Carambole national championship was giving distinct glimpses of a natural Carambole exponent.

A break of 8 successive cannons is just a few short of the record made at the Asian Games last year. And the heartening aspect to this statistic is that our players have only begun their induction into this game. With 12 months still to go before the Asian Games and with the encouragement from DBSA, BSFI and the Ministry of Sports, there is every reason to believe that Lilly and Chandra can do us proud by being present in the medal list at Pusan.

At the last Asian Games we went in without any practice whatsoever. This time around we have time and organisational support on our side. Randhir Singh from IOA who presided over the prize distribution said that all support would be provided to fly in foreign coaches to spend some time with our probables.

The cue sport fraternity must thank Ravi Tandon for his enthusiasm, zeal and organisational capabilities. In staging a most successful event he has been instrumental in initiating and charting the course of a path, which should result in a medal in the coming Asian Games at Pusan.