Revival of WI All-India Billiards & Snooker C’ship thrills Yasin Merchant

Yasin Merchant of India competes in the men’s snooker team competition at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou on November 15, 2010. Pic/AFP

Life has come full circle for cuesport great Yasin Merchant. The tournament which gave his career a boost as a 13-year-old has been revived by the Billiards & Snooker Association of Maharashtra (BSAM) after 33 years. Interestingly, in 1991, he won the Western India All-India Billiards & Snooker Championship, the last time the tournament was held before its revival.

This year it will be played at the Khar Gymkhana billiards hall from August 3-18, where a bevy of stars like India's celebrated cueist Pankaj Advani, winner of 27 world titles, reigning Asian and National Billiards champion Dhruv Sitwala, national snooker champion Sourav Kothari, Aditya Mehta, Laxman Rawat, Rupesh Shah, Dhvaj Haria, Alok Kumar, Siddharth Parikh and S Srikrishna will vie for top honours in the senior billiards and snooker events. When asked what the tournament means to him, Merchant said it is very dear for multiple reasons.

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Two-time Asian snooker champion Yasin Merchant (fourth from left) with Siddharth Parikh, Jt Hon Secretary, BSAM (extreme left), Sparsh Pherwani, Khar Gymkhana's billiards secretary, Cherag Ramakrishna, president of BSAM, Vivek Devnani, president of Khar Gymkhana, Madhvi Asher, vice-president of Khar Gymkhana and Shiv Malhotra, managing committee member of Khar Gymkhana (extreme right) at a press conference on August 1.

"This tournament was one of the biggest of our times and even better than the nationals. We would look forward to being a part of it in those days. Back then, only two from each state could participate at the nationals. The best of the best would participate in this event. Even clubs would look forward to hosting it. This [tournament] is very special to me as it was the first All-India level tournament [Western India juniors] I had won.

Being 13, I had won the U-21 title and it kind of gave my career the much-needed boost. Also, when I had won the tournament in 1991, I had no idea that it would end up being the last time the tournament would be held before its revival this year," Merchant, a 2002 Asian Games snooker doubles gold medallist, told www.mid-day.com.

Recalling fond memories of that win in 1991, Merchant, a World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) World Snooker Coach Grade 2 coach, remarked: "I remember I defeated Ashok Shandilya in final and Sonic Multani in the semi-final and it was held at the Central YMCA Club. And the best part is when the tournament is revived after 33 years, BSAM has partnered with Khar Gymkhana, where I honed my skills and now train others, by hosting it. We have some of the best facilities at the gymkhana for snooker and billiards."