Crucible in town!
On the lines of England’s legendary Crucible Theatre — home to the Snooker World Championships — India’s best cue sports academy is taking shape right here in the city
Come 2015 and Hyderabad will be home to a world-class billiards and snooker academy. The Andhra Pradesh Billiards and Snooker Association (APBSA) — with blessings from World Snooker, the commercial arm of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association — has plans to develop a state-of-theart training facility on two acres of land at Khajaguda in Hyderabad.
Foundation work on the building, the concept for which was designed by the the international architectural firm, RSP Architects, will begin in the month of August or September, according to K. Chandrashekhar Reddy, the APBSA secretary. “We’re waiting for the monsoon to end. We’ll then start work on the foundation for the building.”
The APBSA, for the moment, is operating through the AP Cue Sports Academy, which is located on the site for the academy, titled ‘Crucible’, inspired, no doubt, by England’s Crucible Theatre, the legendary home of the Snooker World Championship.
“The building that’s housing the academy will remain as is while construction on Phase I of the project is going on. Once Phase I is completed, everything will be demolished so that the rest of the project can be completed,” Reddy added.
The Academy, which will also be equipped with a clubhouse with all modern facilities, will have 20 tables apart from a centre table with spectators’ galleries for tournament finals. The final match table will have overhead lighting as well as cameras.
The cost of the proposed project will be anywhere between `20 and 24 crore.
Apart from training facilities that live up to international standards, club members can make use of several of the state-of-the-art facilities which include two banquet halls, two restaurants, two air-conditioned bars, a modernised gym, tennis courts, badminton courts, a rooftop swimming pool, 60 guest rooms and multilevel parking.
“These facilities will ensure every want of the international players, when they play here, is provided for.”
Miles Pearce, World Snooker’s commercial director has inspected the land for the project before examining the plans. According to Reddy, it was enough to impress him.
“Now that World Snooker have given us their blessings, they will ensure world class coaches are sent over to the academy to train youngsters. The basic idea behind setting up of ‘Crucible’ is to ensure youngsters are brought into the game.”
The idea for the academy was proposed last year after the land allotted to the APBSA was finally freed up after years of legal entanglements.
“We had organised an international event at the Taj Krishna in 2003. That was when we thought we should have our own facility to organise such events in the future. We had planned to approach the then chief minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu for land, but by the time we got our proposal ready, his term had ended. So we approached Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, who granted us this land,” Reddy explained.
“But the land was caught in a legal battle and was freed up only last year, which was when we planned in earnest for this academy.”
A membership drive is already in full swing and according to the secretary, around 100 members have already enrolled themselves.
Once the academy starts its operations, students interested in will be required to pay a security deposit of `5,000. An amount of `1,500 would be charged per month subsequently.
The five-storeyed facility, if all goes according to plan, will be fully operational in 2015.