The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : BSFI rejects shortlisted candidates

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Monday, Jun 04, 2007
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Sport - Billiards & Snooker

BSFI rejects shortlisted candidates

Principal Correspondent

NEW DELHI: A foreign coach for the Indian cueists will continue to be a distant dream with the Managing Committee of the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI) rejecting the three shortlisted candidates on the grounds of language incompatibility.

Coaches from Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines were initially considered for the job, but acting on the fears expressed by the players' association that none of the three were conversant with English and it would be difficult to strike a rapport, the BSFI Managing Committee which met at Indore on Saturday, has now started looking afresh for a `compatible' coach.

Genuine concern

"The players had a genuine concern so we decided to give some more time to search for a coach who would suit our needs,'' said the BSFI vice-president Ravi K. Tandon. "Basically we are looking for a pool and carom coach since we have competent Indian coaches for billiards and snooker,'' he said.

After some initial hesitancy, the BSFI has decided to field a two-member women's team in the World under-21 snooker championship India would be hosting at Goa from August 22 to 31. The BSFI has sounded the world body, the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF), that it would be fielding eight men and two women cueists.

Camp at Bangalore

The selection camp for the World under-21 championship will be held in Bangalore from July 5 to 12 where the top 16 junior boys and top four junior women will vie for the berths. With the Indoor Asian Games giving cue sport yet another stage to perform at the continental level, the BSFI has chalked out extensive training camps for all disciplines.

The top eight in the last National championship will participate in the selection camps for the Indoor Asian Games to be held in Macau (China) from October 27 to November 3. A camp for the billiards and snooker players will be held from August 2 to 10, while the camp for the 8-ball and 9-ball pool will be held in September. Venues for both the camps are yet to be finalised.

Besides these cue sport disciplines, carom will also be a medal sport at the Macau Games. Incidentally, the capital hosted the inaugural carom National five years ago and since then no one has come forward to conduct the event and interest in this discipline has waned.

The winner of the July 26 to 31 National championship here will represent the country at the Macau Indoor Asian Games.

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