Pune 11 th January 2020:
The onerous responsibility to hold such a huge 30 days cue sports event in our country does not look that imposing at all considering what was evident here on Saturday, 11 th January 2020.
The well-knit team of BSAM, the Billiards & Snooker Association Of Maharashtra led by the very resourceful and passionate lover of our sport, Sir Rajan Kinswara, the BSAM President who is the main sponsor of this edition of the Manisha nationals, the hard-working Rishabh Kumar, the Man for all seasons, Salil Deshpande and the Chief Referee, Ajay Rastogi fully backed by their very own mercurial Devendra Joshi, the Honorary Secretary of the Billiards & Snooker Federation Of India and you have a crack combination of finance, managerial skills and experienced members of our elite fraternity.
In the presence of more than a 150 players, referees, officials, and spectators who had gathered at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana club here at 9:30 am, Rajan Kinvara and the President of the hosting club, Dr. Sudhir Bhate together formally inaugurated the 30 days Mega cue sports carnival followed by the matches of the Sub Junior billiards and the Junior billiards qualifying rounds.
Rajan Razmi, the star Junior player of Maharashtra was the cynosure of all eyes even as he trounced a fighting young talent of Uttar Pradesh, Tarandeep Singh by 432-61 points in the one-sided ninety minutes encounter.
Reeling off-breaks of 67,48,42 and 40 he romped home to the appreciating applause of his Pune fans.
Another cueist to impress all was the Jammu & Kashmir player, Umar Ul Islam.
Islam beat Sparshwant of Tamil Nadu in the juniors qualifying round by 284- 101 points.
Before this Tarandeep of Uttar Pradesh potted with felicity to record a memorable 260-119 points against Balakrishna of Tamil Nadu.
Islam played to potential in the Sub Junior billiards event too, registering fine victories over Krishnam Betala of Delhi by 234-121 points and then following it up by defeating the Tamil Nadu player, Akash B by 178-88 points.
Arshnoor Singh of Haryana was another youngster who made his mark with victories over Zubin Zaheer of Karnataka by 165-139 points and then crushing Adwait Adhikari of Madhya Pradesh by 204-104 points.
Another talented lad of Maharashtra, Summer Mago gave the home crowd much to cheer when he outplayed the very young Ashanth of Tamil Nadu by 346-41 points.
There was a buzz in the atmosphere when it was found that a couple of referees had cried off the nationals due to personal reasons.
The Uttar Pradesh Billiards & Snooker Association is trying it’s best to rope in the services of their very talented young official, Mohammad Rehan Siddiqui who is quite likely to join the band of committed professional referees officiating in this championship from all over the country on Wednesday, a welcome relief to the beleaguered team under the able guidance of Ajay Rastogi.
All in all, it was a grand start to the colossal tournament which promises to touch new heights, equal to the expectations of all.
I. S. Malik
Media Officer,
Uttar Pradesh Billiards & Snooker Association
