Something’s a missing in the cue soup

This week we place Billiards and Snooker under the microscope in an attempt to uncover why, after producing a billiards world champion in A.J.M Lafir and possessing strong interest in cue sports, Sri Lanka has remained largely stagnant in both games over

We don’t have a place for the sport. We had our tables at Race Course but we were put out of there. We had four tables there now we have only two tables. There is also a lack of money. We have affiliated clubs but they do not pay the affiliate fees of Rs. 3500 per year. We are looking to make it compulsory for the clubs to pay otherwise they can’t get their licenses. The Sports Ministry is not helping us either. We have sold two tables to send Susantha and two people abroad and we thought the Sports Minister would return that money but still it hasn’t been paid. Now we are accommodated at the Sugathadasa Sports Complex where two used ACs are installed. Now the electricity bill during a tournament will come to about Rs. 80,000. The standard of billiards has really gone down because there is low participation. Snooker of course there are a lot of youngsters willing to play but nobody still can beat Susantha or Sirisoma because most of them just play the game. They don’t have that interest. If you don’t have this interest you can’t beat anybody. We have so many programmes but no-one comes for them. Now last year the Minister gave us some money and we brought a coach from India but nobody tried to benefit from that, only the Army was interested and they all participated.

Currently there is a ranking system. If you are well ranked even the Sports Minister has said that he will help. Just going abroad and losing and coming back is no good. You must go up and that is what we also want. As council members we have paid for the sport out of our own pockets. This time Susantha got the ticket money from the minister but all other expenses were given by the Federation. So what help we can give we are giving. Our president, Rajabdeen, has told the Sports Minister to give us a piece of land anywhere. Now Mr. Rajabdeen is a Vice President of the Asian body and they have promised him they will give him tables. To improve the sport we must get land and get more tables. If they can’t find a place we should get our same place at Race Course back. They also get us to move our tables but these are not ordinary tables. You need about 10 people to move them, and the cloth can get damaged. So the problem is you can’t just take it and go just like that, it’s not like any other table. They are very professionally done. Another thing that is important is AC. So having about three or four ACs running while you’re playing will cost a lot of money. So because of all these problems we can’t think about development programmes and things like that.

The game in Sri Lanka has not improved because of the changes in the world game from 15-ball red to six-ball red. Then billiards from one hour to three hour games has come to 100 points and we found that the games which are played in the clubs are mostly bet games and no serious games are going on. Since of late we have been asked to shift by Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa from Race Course. It’s not like carom or cards. Our tables are more than two tonnes. We need a fully air conditioned arena and we spent almost two million making it. When the Race Course came up for renovation we had to move almost overnight. We moved four tables to the Sugathadasa Stadium Sports Hotel, from which we assembled two tables. The tables were getting dilapidated so we sold them and put the money in a fixed deposit account.

We see Mr. Susantha Boteju and Mr. K.H Sirisoma who have been champions for the last several years. They have studied the game so they are more skillful than newcomers. They have mastered the game but they have not come to the international standard. According to the Sri Lankan standard Sirisoma is the best. According to Sri Lankan standard Boteju is the best but when they go to the international arena they get wiped out in the preliminary rounds.

There is no development. The government must give us support. We got down an Indian coach. We played nearly Rs. 800,000 for this training programme but the boys who got selected to play said they had no time to come and train. The players are not consistently interested in getting trained. We can’t force them. There is a lack of interest because in this game there is no prize money and there is not much you can give. But last year I was in London for the World Championship for Billiards. We got two players ready but when we sent the application form to the embassy they turned it down because they won’t just let you go to London. They say the chances are that these guys who go to London won’t come back. When I was elected Vice President of the South Asian Federation they said why don’t you send your players out? If it is somewhere in Bangkok, India, Pakistan or somewhere close by we can send but if you’re playing in some place like London it will cost half a million for us to send them. We don’t have Rs. 500,000. When we ask the Ministry, they will give a ticket. We have to find accommodation and give the allowance; the visa also is very costly. But we took our team to Bulgaria last year. Our boys they don’t take things seriously. Susantha is not a person who has taken this game seriously. For him it is a trip abroad, meeting all his old friends there, having a good time in the night, not sleeping early, coming late to the games and we have no control over this. The last Billiards and Snooker World Championships was hosted on the top floor of a hotel. On the ground floor of the hotel there was a casino. Players were getting free food and drinks at the casino. Our Sri Lankan players were highly undisciplined. They played till morning in the casino, eating and drinking. So they weren’t ready to play the next day and in the preliminary rounds the members of the Sri Lankan team were out. I came and complained about it to the board and said look these boys are not properly disciplined. For them it is a good trip to go to the capital city of a country, they get free tickets. They get an allowance. But if I go and bring disciplinary action against him (Susantha) he will run to the Minister and say, “Look the President and the Board are trying to penalize me, I am the only talented player.”