Dearth of quality worrying: Ferreira

Merchant, in his forties, had finished runner-up in the Asian championship at Karachi earlier this year and is still India’s best in the more popular of the two cue games.

“Three Indians have done well in the International level in snooker—(former Asian champion) Om Agrawal, Yasin and Pankaj Advani (a former IBSF world champion), but none of them excelled at the under 21 level,” he pointed out.

The three-time world amateur billiards champion said the world under 21 championship was the stepping stone for the latter ranks. “You have to be ready to make the leap at 15 or 16 so that by the time you go past the age group, you are good enough to enter the pro ranks directly,” Ferreira said.

“I am hopeful of good talent coming up soon in India beacuse of the decisions taken by Capt. Mohan (President of the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India). More tournaments have been lined up,” he concluded on a more optimistic note.

Meanwhile, the winner of the boys’ title will take home $4,000 while a proposal has been sent to the IBSF by Iran, who have entered two girl competitors, that it will offer $2,000 as prize money to the girls’ event which would be held separately.

The other foreign girl participants hail from China and New Zealand. The participating countries are: Australia, Belgium, Bahrain, Egypt, Emirates, England, Iran, Latvia, Malaysia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Poland, Qatar, China, Republic of Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden, Syria, Scotland, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Wales and hosts India.