Cuesport is all set to join the franchise-based league bandwagon as the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India is contemplating to start an IPL-like tournament this year.
BSFI president Captain PVK Mohan on Tuesday said the details were being worked out for the Cue Masters League and the International Management Group, which successfully conducted the Indian Super League football with Reliance, was working on its modalities.
“We hope to finalise everything after the second edition of the Indian Open gets over in Mumbai (March 10-14). It’s still in the nascent stage,” Mr. Mohan told reporters on the sidelines of the Senior National Billiards and Snooker Championship at the Bengal Rowing Club.
The Cue Masters League will have six franchise teams including one in Kolkata and the BSFI is mulling which of the three formats — billiards, snooker and pool — would feature in the inaugural edition. “There will be six teams across the country and we are trying our best to make the format very attractive and popular.”
Mr. Mohan, who is also the International Billiards and Snooker Federation president, said they’re also planning for an Asian Players’ Tour Championship in snooker in five countries. “Exciting days are ahead for cue sport. The players from Asian countries had to stay in UK for long to pursue professional snooker. But with the Asian Tour things will change,” Mr. Mohan said.
Mr. Mohan recently met the UAE Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan who has promised all the support for the Tour event which will start in UAE.
The Tour will then travel to India, followed by Singapore and Thailand while the IBSF is yet to decide on the fifth country.
IBSF is also trying its best to make cue sport a category in the next edition of the Asian Games in Indonesia. “An attempt is being made to have it in the Asian Games first and then take it to the Commonwealth Games,” he said.
Mr. Mohan further said they’re getting full support from the Olympic Council of Asia and keeping their fingers crossed for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. “Let’s see, that’s a long way to go. But our target is to take cue sport to maximum countries possible. Currently we have 85 countries and we hope to take this to 100.”
He also said the IBSF U-21 and World U-18 Championships are due this year in St. Petersburg and Bucharest in August and October respectively.
