HYDERABAD: Twenty20 format in cue sports at the National level? P.V.K. Mohan, the newly-elected president of the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India, told the media here on Tuesday that under the new format to be introduced in phases, a player has to complete the frame in 20 minutes and take not more than 20 seconds between each stroke. "Every effort will be made to make cue sports more television and spectator friendly," he said.

Mr. Mohan believes that, thanks to the achievements of Pankaj Advani, who was conferred with the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna recently, a perfect platform had been put in place to popularise the sport and take it to a different plane.

Some of the BSFI's plans include hosting the first-ever schools competitions in Delhi featuring 42 teams. "To encourage more and more youngsters, the BSFI has decided to present a billiards table to the winner of this championship," Mr. Mohan said.

"The BSFI is committed to develop the sport and also keen to market it more effectively since it is the only sport which fetched India 19 World titles," the BSFI president remarked.

Mohan also said that Hyderabad would host the second edition of the World Snooker team championship next November.

He also thanked the Central Government for sponsoring the entire Indian team during its recent trip to USA for the inaugural World team championship.

Commenting on the Doha Asian Games and the concept of players sticking to just one event — either billiards or snooker, Mr. Mohan said it was the decision of the three-member technical panel comprising Michael Ferreira, Geet Sethi and Manoj Kothari which insisted on this rule to get better results. "As far as Doha Asian Games is concerned, Geet Sethi, Pankaj Advani and Ashok Shandilya will play in billiards, while Manan Chandra, Yasin Merchant will feature in snooker," he added. The BSFI chief also said that women cueists would be given all encouragement and the first initiative in this regard was to allot an exclusive women's pool championship to the Chandigarh Association next month.

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