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Journalism of Courage
As billiards discards its longer version to give itself a new image, our correspondent talks to the men in waistcoats about a sport that8217;s trying to make a point
On June 25 this year, Indian sports fans were in flashback mode. Nostalgia drained Kapil8217;s Devils as the nation, without a hint of boredom, listened to its favourite 25-year-old cricketing tale.
But while on this trip down memory lane, India forgot to recall another sporting story that turned 50 in 2008 8212; Wilson Jones won the world billiards title at Kolkata8217;s Great Eastern Hotel in 1958. Despite the obscurity and lack of mass appeal, billiards has diligently gone about its business over the years. When Pankaj Advani won a double world title at Bangalore recently, the Wilson Jones legacy was safe. Advani had taken India8217;s world title count to 24 in the last five decades 8212; something no other sport can match in the country. But ironically, despite the crowded Hall of Fame, posters of sporting heroes sold on pavements don8217;t feature men with cues in their hands.
Multi world-champion and the face of the sport in the country, Geet Sethi, candidly admits that the sport needs an image makeover. 8220;I8217;ve often seen spectators yawning in the background when I8217;m in the middle of a big break,8221; he says.
These yawns are responsible for the classical version of billiards fighting a battle for survival. The world body is giving a serious thought to scrapping the longer version and stick to the new points format. Meanwhile, the Indian body has already taken a decision to do away with the clock next to the scoreboard at the Nationals.
It is this change that has put billiards, or more specifically Indian billiards, at the crossroads. The introduction of the points format will see the levelling of the playing field with lesser players having a chance to fashion upsets. Billiards will have the unpredictability of Twenty20 cricket, where even Zimbabwe can hope to win against Australia while the result of the same contest in Test cricket is a foregone conclusion. As the hours change to minutes, the game is being reduced to a race where comebacks are ruled out and a miss can prove decisive.
Ask old-timers such as Subhash Agarwal, a former world champion, and he agrees that change was inevitable. 8220;It had to happen,8221; he says. 8220;Today nobody has the patience or passion to sit and watch a match for hours. Spectators are an important part of the game and their changing tastes can no longer be ignored. The points format is here to stay.8221;
That would be music to the ears of Ahmedabad boy Rupesh Shah, whose unexpected world points format title last year changed his life for ever. Shah has lived in the shadow of his more illustrious city mate Sethi for years. Perpetually on the fringe of Indian cue sports, Shah touched a global high in 2007. 8220;I8217;m a new person after that. I got a big shot in the arm. I have no illusions about my skills, I know there are players who are much better. That8217;s the reason I don8217;t always fancy my chances against them in the time format,8221; he says.
Shah was playing the world championship in Singapore for the first time and won the title despite the presence of big names. 8220;I never believed that one day I would win a world championship, that too in the presence of my idol Geet Sethi and others like Pankaj Advani,8221; says Shah
Changing attitudes
Such is the changing attitude of cue-sport sponsors at a global level that it is tough finding organisers for a time-format championship. 8220;Several countries refuse to host the longer version if the world championship is held on their soil. They want to just stick with the points game,8221; says S Balasubramainam, the vice-president of the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India BSFI who attended the International Billiards and Snooker Federation IBSF meeting in Thailand last year. 8220;There are only 17 or 18 countries out of 77 members of the IBSF that play billiards, the rest only play snooker. But there was a suggestion that, in case the time format was abolished, others were willing to look at billiards as well,8221; he says.
To look at this complex problem, the IBSF has constituted a three-member committee to give suggestions on the future of the classical form of the game. Ace cueists Sethi, Peter Gilchrist and Ray Habgood are the members of this committee. Ask Gilchrist about his take and one realises that backers of the longer version are dwindling by the day. 8220;I was a bit disappointed by the response during the time-format games at the World Championship in Bangalore,8221; says Gilchrist.
In the early 90s, India had witnessed a big boost for billiards because of a Grand Slam professional league. The initiative that was supported by the Indian Tobacco Company ITC lasted from 1991-96 as top names in the world became regulars on this big-money circuit. India soon became a billiards hub. World-class players such as Mike Russell, Chris Shutt, David Causier, Robby Foldvari and even Gilchrist made India their second home.
8220;India was a lucrative place at that time. I used to come here at least six to seven times a year,8221; says the 40-year-old Gilchrist, whose passport has around 40 stamps from Indian immigration authorities. But once tobacco sponsorship of sporting events was banned, the boom ended. 8220;It hit our earnings very badly, which ultimately forced me to take up coaching,8221; says Gilchrist.
Another world champion Devendra Joshi, too, misses the Grand Slam league. 8220;After that we never got so many superstars under one roof in our country,8221; he says. The present world champion, 23-year-old Advani, hasn8217;t seen that era and is a points-format promoter. 8220;It8217;s a very happening format where you have to remain calm, and yet very excited,8221; he says.
But in this overwhelming mood for change, there are a few voices of dissent. The legend of this three-ball game, Ferreira, sharply criticises BSFI8217;s decision to do away with the longer version at the nationals. 8220;I feel it8217;s a very unfortunate decision. It8217;s like BCCI stopping Test cricket to promote Twenty20 games,8221; says the multi world-title winner.
8220;I8217;m not saying don8217;t promote the points format. In this day and age, it8217;s pretty difficult to remain rigid. But certainly not at the cost of the longer version of the game which is the true test of a player8217;s calibre,8221; says Ferreira, who played his first-ever points format match at the European championship held in Belgium in 1989. 8220;It8217;s an interesting format where you are always on your toes. It8217;s more like a hit-and-run type of sport,8221; he says.
Sethi floats an idea that could appeal to Ferreira. 8220;What we can do is have a time format national meet once every four years,8221; he suggests.
Perhaps that8217;s the way out as billiards hankers for mass support. If the sport does catch on, may be the platinum jubilee of Wilson Jones8217;s world crown won8217;t go unnoticed.
