have spent to play in these championships. I
didn’t want to play this year, but my wife insisted that I do it for myself, if not
for anything else," Shandilya said.
The national billiards champion, however, was not much bothered by his prequarterfinal
loss to Devendra Joshi in the snooker championship. "I don’t like to give
excuses for my shortcomings. If Joshi beat me, full credit goes to him for playing a
brilliant game," he sportingly said
Shandilya will not play in the Masters billiards tournament in Britain because he has no
sponsors. "If I spend money out of my own pocket to play in Britain there would be a
lot of pressure on me to perform. Besides there would have to be at least two tournaments
for me to recover the money." But, he wants to play in the World Billiards
Championships scheduled to be held in Thailand later this year. "If restrictions are
imposed preventing professional players from playing as they did last year, I intend to
resign from the professional circuit."
Coming to the topic of promoting the game in the country, he
said, "My repeated pleas to the BSFI to affiliate corporates like the Petroleum
Sports Control Board and Air India have fallen on deaf ears. If these organisations are
affiliated they will give a big boost to the game by sponsoring tournaments as well as
employing players. The BSFI has been very lackadaisical in promoting the game in the
country."
The sad part is that billiards is the only game that has given
India 14 world champions and four medals in the Asian Games and there are still no
sponsors to promote the players. "I would earn more money as the 12th man in the
Indian cricket team than I do now as India’s top billiards player."
Shandilya has a job with the railways, but that income is not
sufficient to make ends meet. He does not get any aid from the railways to represent them
in the nationals and he intends to take this matter up with the concerned authorities.
"If the Board of Control for Cricket in India can look after the cricketers’
best interests why can’t the BSFI do the same for us? To avail government aid to
promote junior and senior players, the BSFI will have to nominate them, which they very
rarely do. Thus whatever little help that can be got from the government agencies goes
waste."
Continuing on the topic of sponsorship for the promotion of the
game in the country, he said, "Sponsorship and marketing may be equivalent to
begging, but the BSFI should not think twice about it if it helps to retain players’
interest in the sport." Shandilya, an Arjuna award winner, loves billiards with a
passion, but is sorry to sound like mercenary about the game. "But I can’t help
it. I need to earn a living and it has to come from billiards."
The BSFI’s laid back attitude is not only with regard to
snooker and billiards. It’s only now that they are waking up to the reality that cue
sports such as pool and carom are gaining popularity. "They have decided to import
six international size pool tables, but it’s not even a patch compared to the
infrastructure that billiards associations have in India," Shandilya said.
The mushrooming of pool parlours in every nook and corner does
not help the cause because the pool tables are much smaller than the international size.
"Indian players did not fare well in pool at the Asian games because they lacked
practice on international standard tables which measure nine feet by four and half
feet."
It would be a great loss to the country if top players like
Shandilya begin to entertain thoughts of quitting the game. The national federation will
have to rejuvenate the enthusiasm for cue sport in the country by attracting big sponsors
and marketing the game more meaningfully for the benefit of both, the sport and the
players.
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