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