The O B Agarwal Billiards & Snooker Promotional Series, under which snooker and billiards tournaments will be held each month at different venues in Mumbai, is scheduled to commence from February 22-March 1 at Bombay Gymkhana.
Arun Agarwal, brother of cue sports genius late Om Agarwal (India’s first World Amateur Snooker Champion in 1984) informed that the idea behind the series launch is to offer second-rung players, those who have not represented India at the senior level, match play experience and prize money.
Organised by CueCircuit, a new body formed to promote cue sports, the project is unique in the sense that videos of participants will be uploaded on the website; coaching camps will be held at school-level followed an inter-school event.
The O B Agarwal Billiards & Snooker Promotional Series will have its own ranking system for players; with top 28 cueists in the series will be joined by India’s top eight players and four wildcards in the grand final.
Twenty players will feature in the first event at Bombay Gymkhana, divided into four groups of five cueists each, top two to qualify for the quarterfinals. The time format will be applied in billiards, snooker will best-of-five frames in round-robin, best-of-seven in quarterfinals and best-of-nine frames in finals.
Former world billiards champion Michael Ferreira, formally declaring the event open at Bombay Gymkhana on Monday, hoped the idea will be replicated in other States.
