Not all is well in the world of billiards

BILLIARDS received a blow when the Professional World Billiards Championship was not held in the year 2000. And for a while, it seemed that this year too the holding of the event was in doubt. Fortunately, after some to-ing and fro-ing, Mega Ace, the Mumbai based consultancy company which has positioned itself as event managers in addition to its other activities, stepped in at short notice not only to take up the task of running the event but also to sponsor a part of the 45,000 pounds prize fund and totally underwrite the considerable ``back up'' costs, including the expenses of the venue, infrastructure, advertising, and technical personnel.

I propose writing on the various aspects of the championship in a separate article, as the reason why the championship was not held last year is itself a revelation and worthy of special comment. After all, continuity is the single most important factor lending credibility to such an important tournament.

The truth is the World Professional Billiards Championship was supposed to have been held last October. A major sponsor had already been identified and all of us were looking forward to playing in Chennai. In the run-up to the championship, I was asked by Chris Smith, a highly paid appointee of the WPBSA who had been put in exclusive charge of the administration of billiards, to conduct a qualifying tournament to identify the Indian players outside the top 8 who would find a place in the main draw.

Everything was proceeding smoothly when literally on the eve of the qualifiers, I received a message to cancel all arrangements as the championship was being postponed. The message was so sudden that I did not have sufficient time to inform Ishmit Singh Malik who had already caught the train for the 36-hour journey from Lucknow to Mumbai! Poor Malik arrived in Mumbai and duly reported to me as the Tournament Director only to be told that he could do an about turn and go back to Lucknow. However, the WPBSA, at my insistence, was good enough to compensate Malik for the expenses he had incurred, which was about the only positive aspect of this confused scenario.

But why, pray was this cancellation at all necessary, especially when the difficult part, namely procuring a sponsor, was not a problem? If an Indian promoter or Association had done it, all hell would have broken loose and in all probability, caustic comments on the lack of efficiency in our part of the world would have been flying around thick and fast. And thereon hangs a tale.

It seems that the International Billiards and Snooker Federation, the governing body of the amateur game and which claims self- importantly, if inaccurately, to be the one true governing body of the game worldwide, wanted to hold the World Open in November in the 50 point format.

This format, according to the IBSF, is the only viable one for the possible inclusion of billiards in the Olympics. However, as the IBSF had no money to conduct the tournament, it asked the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association to fund it. Apparently Mark Wildman, Chairman of the WPBSA, at a meeting with IBSF officials in Bangkok earlier in the year, had agreed to provide funding to the extent of 20,000 pounds.

It is important to note that while this amount is not sufficient for a single professional billiards tournament, it would have helped the Billiards Committee to organise two back-to-back tournaments in the U.K., and thereby rationalise travel and other costs for the Indian professionals. As it happens, only one tournament, the World Matchplay, was held in March this year instead of the two usually arranged.

Many Indian pro's declined to play in it, as the break-even point would only have been achieved by reaching the semifinal. Thus, the professional billiards community, especially from India, was badly affected by the money given to the IBSF for the World Open.

The only charitable explanation for this largesse from Wildman is firstly, that he agreed with the IBSF's viewpoint that billiards can get into the Olympics only via the 50 point format and that a tournament in this format was therefore called for; and secondly, that all the billiards professionals (and not only those outside the top 8 as in previous IBSF tournaments) would in any case have the opportunity of playing in the World Open and earning reasonable prize money. For the record, neither I, the Vice Chairman of the Billiards Committee, nor Geet Sethi, the other Indian member of the Committee, was informed of Wildman's decision in Bangkok, but that is another story.

In a classic case of the right hand not knowing what the left was doing, even Chris Smith, appointed the CEO of billiards, was completely unaware of Mark Wildman's agreement with the IBSF and was pressing full steam ahead with preparations for the World Professional event as mentioned earlier.

On realising this, the IBSF, horrified at the possible devaluation of the World Open if the professional championship preceded it, asked (or begged as some would have it) the WPBSA to postpone the professional event to some nebulous date in the future, the further the better.

It was important, they felt, for the public not to be confused as to who was really the world champion. For the life of me, I cannot see what is so difficult in distinguishing between the World Open champion and the World Professional Champion, but no, the IBSF would not hear of it.

The unorganised fashion in which the premier championship of billiards had been thrust into limbo combined with rapidly changing market forces caused the sponsor to back out and by February 2001, we were back to square one. We had a great product, but no sponsor to take advantage of it.

Luckily, Mega Ace was in the process of organising an attractive invitation billiards event in April. In the middle of March, I received a call, this time from Peter Gilchrist, Chairman of the Billiards Committee. (Chris Smith had in the meantime resigned).

Would Mega Ace consider converting their event into the World championship? In the short time available, I thought it highly unlikely, but asked Ms. Poonam Kumar, Chairperson and MD of Mega Ace what she felt.

Her answer would have done Nike proud. ``Let's JUST DO IT'', she said and that was that. By all accounts, the tournament was a brilliant success. Ironically, Gilchrist was the biggest beneficiary, as he went on to defeat hot favourite Mike Russell for the second World title of his career. But more of that the next time around.

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