The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : Kolkata to host selection trials

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 21, 2004

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Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Kolkata to host selection trials

KOLKATA, JULY 20. The process of selection of players for the prestigious IBSF World snooker championship in the Netherlands and the fourth Asian billiards championship in India later this year will be set in motion here next month.

Fourteen cueists will contest to earn a place in the two Indian teams during a coaching camp-cum-selection trials to be held at the SAI, Eastern Centre here from August 13 to 19.

Revealing this to The Hindu here on Tuesday, the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI) president, P.N. Roy, said this system of selection was decided after the last Nationals at Gwalior in January. Previously, the National champion and the runner-up were automatically named to represent the country.

As per the system, the best eight cueists will play each other and the players are ranked according to points earned during the selection trials. The world snooker will be held at Veldhoven in the Netherlands from November 20 to December 4. The dates and venue of the Asian billiards are yet to be decided.

Meanwhile, the federation has named Michael Ferreira as the coach of the three-member Indian under-21 snooker team. Former billiards world champion Manoj Kothari, who was originally named to accompany the side, fell ill and ruled himself out.

The trio — Pankaj Advani (Karnataka), Sourav Kothari (Bengal) and Snehal Mehta (Maharashtra) — will leave along with Ferreira on July 24 to participate in the IBSF world under-21 snooker championship to be held at Carlow in Republic of Ireland from July 27 to August 5. Mr. Roy said the Union Government's clearance was expected soon.

The following players, ranked in that order, will attend the selection trials at Kolkata:

Billiards: Alok Kumar (Punjab), B. Bhaskar (Karnataka), Ashok Shandilya (Railways), Devendra Joshi (Maharashtra), Mohammad Asim (Bengal), Pankaj Advani (Karnataka), Sourav Kothari (Bengal) and Dhruv Shtwala (Railways).

Snooker: Pankaj Advani, Alok Kumar, Yasin Merchant (Maharashtra), Rafath Habib (Railways), Rishab Thukral (Delhi), Brijesh Damani (Bengal), Manan Chandra (Delhi) and B.V.S. Murthy (Karnataka). — Our Special Correspondent

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