A memorable victory

All the plaudits being showered on the duo and the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association are well deserved.

A mid all the stories of gloom and doom coming out of the Pakistani sporting scene, snooker has proved to be the surprising exception and has provided the nation with some good news. Following the embarrassing Test loss suffered by our cricket team at the hands of Zimbabwe and Pakistan’s inability to qualify for the hockey World Cup for the very first time, the national snooker team’s victory at the inaugural IBSF World Team Championship, defeating Iran in the final in Ireland, has given some respite and indicated that the country is blessed with plenty of talent when it comes to sports. What is needed is a proper system to harness this talent so that it can succeed consistently at the international level.

At the event, Pakistan were represented by Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Sajjad, the former already having made his mark when he won the IBSF World Snooker Championship in Bulgaria last year and the Asian Snooker Championship earlier this year, in Qatar. The duo gave an excellent account of itself, beating Poland, India and Ireland on its way to the final, which proved to be a nerve-wracking affair, with Iran taking a 3-0 lead in the best-of-nine frame match, requiring Pakistan to stage a dramatic comeback, winning the next five frames on the trot to clinch the title.

All the plaudits being showered on the duo and the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) are well deserved. What now needs to be done is to support the efforts of the players and the PBSA, at the state level. In this regard, it is shameful that despite the passage of 10 months, Asif has still not received the award money promised to him by the government after he won the world title last year. The apathy that governments often show towards our sportsmen and the meagre funding given to sports associations are great hindrances to encouraging young talent to make its mark. This state of affairs must be reversed if we want Pakistan to deliver such memorable victories regularly.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2013.

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