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BSAM plans to make Pune as cuesports hub

 

 

The Billiards and Snooker Association of Maharashtra (BSAM) plans to make Pune the hub of Snooker and Billiards activity in the state and the country. With this in mind the Federation is planning to write to the state government to allot land for a proposed Snooker and Billiards complex, which will also house an coaching academy.

 

Former Asian Champion and the Joint Secretary of the association Mr. Devendra Joshi said that the game was taking roots in Pune and also the number of tournaments had gone up due to the gesture of sponsors like Mr. Khinvsara, also many youngsters have taken to cue sports, and with this in mind the decision to host the complex and academy in the city was taken.

 

He also added as per the norms of the Billiards and the Snooker federation of India it was mandatory for every player to be registered with the association and the BSAM will actively facilitate the registration process.

 

Mr. Khinvsara also added that the committee decided that Mumbai would host the Maharashtra State selection tournament for the nationals to be held in Indore in August and PYC Gymkhna in Pune would be hosting an Rs.4 Lakh event All India Open event in October.

 

The Association would also betaking an important role in helping local players and the lovers of game to form district associations at Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Nasik in line with Indian Olympic Charter of having District bodies, so that they could be affiliated to the Maharashtra Olympic association.

 

Lamenting that sponsorship was as good as zero, Mr. Joshi said apart from the nationals in the country today the PCL- Manish snooker championships being hosted by Poona Club is the only fixed event in the calendar, rest of the events only take place if they manage to find a sponsor.

 

The PCL-Manisha Snooker event in Pune has shown that if corporate s come forward new faces can come to the fore. The results of the ongoing event will go on a long way in changing the mindset of lesser known players and giving them confidence to take over from top players like Pankaj Advani, Himself, Alok Kumar if more events are held players like Lucky Vatnani and Faisal Khan will emerge, he added.

 

In three years Pune has seen tremendous growth in the game thanks to people Mr. Khinvsara, Mr. Shantilal Sanghvi and Salil Deshpande's efforts, if more cities in the state can come forward we can have many more players.

 

Veteran organizer Shantilal Sanghvi said that PCL-Manisha event will be held for another 2 years as Mr. Khinvsara had committee to the event for five years.

 

The members of the committee which included the president of the association and three times world champion Michael Ferreira,  Snehal Mehta , Derick Sippy , Devendra Joshi , Ajay Rastogi apart from Mr. Khinvsara also decided to plan a blueprint to promote the sport and also tap potential sponsors

12 June 2008 - Pune - India.

 

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Last modified: Monday July 27, 2009 21:57:22 +0530