New Delhi: Fresh from defending his world championship crown, billiards exponent Sourav Kothari has called for the sport’s inclusion in elite quadrennial events such as the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. Cue sports have never been part of the CWG but featured in the Asiad from 1998 to 2010. India emerged as the most successful nation in billiards and snooker during this period, clinching 15 medals across four editions of the Asian Games.
“We have a great history in cue sports and I feel billiards and snooker should be a regular medal sport in the CWG and Asian Games. It will greatly boost our medal tally,” Kothari said in a virtual interaction arranged by Sports Authority of India (SAI) on Thursday.
The 2030 edition of the Asian Games in Doha will witness the return of cue sports to the elite competition after 20 years. “It’s great to have the sport back in the Asiad after being unfortunately dropped after 2010. That will give the sport a huge filip. I’d also want the sport in CWG 2030 which will be held in India. SAI, ministry, and federation will have to put a concerted effort for that,” the 41-year-old said.
Kothari, who defeated multiple-time world champion compatriot Pankaj Advani in the lop-sided final in Carlow, Ireland earlier this week, also emphasised the need to tap India’s potential in cue sports. “These days, I find a lot of youngsters play billiards or snooker on their phones with great excitement and involvement. We need to get them to play the sport. The biggest hurdle is that it’s not an easy sport to understand, but with greater outreach from the federation or SAI, we can do it.”
“Cricket, table tennis, football are mass sports because they are very easy to pick. Not even once am I suggesting that it’s very easy to become good at them, but it’s very easy to pick up the sport. In our case, even to pick up the sport, even to get your basics right might take you years because it’s so complicated. So that is why sometimes people get discouraged.”
The ace cuesit termed his title defence “bittersweet” coming as it did just four months after his father’s demise. Son of billiards stalwart Mukul Kothari who passed away this January, Kothari said he was too numb to feel the pressure in the high-stakes final. In fact, just days after his father’s death, Kothari was back on his feet, winning the national title.
“It’s a huge void. I can’t explain how I won the Nationals, how I won the Worlds. People around me feel I am mentally very resilient to have overcome such a terrible loss, but the fact is I am still too numb to process this loss,” he said.
“Wins and losses don’t matter to me right now, and sometimes that really helps you to not give in to competition pressure. Because I’m so numbed by everything around me, I feel I dealt with pressure much better. I feel like it was not a matter of life and death for me,” added Kothari, who won the final 1133-477.
Comparing his two world titles, Kothari said, “Both were contrasting campaigns. Last year no one really threatened me. This year, in every match, starting from David Causier (757-498) in the quarter-final, Dhvaj Haria (633-443) in the semis and Advani in the final, my opponents started with a bang. Luckily, I came from behind. In the final, Pankaj made a 167 break, and I replied with a 485, which took me one hour and two minutes. A lot of thoughts can go through your mind while your opponent is at the table, but like I said, I was too numb to feel anything. I was slipping in and out of the match mentally.”
“After being relentlessly scored against by all my opponents—Causier, Advani, all of them—the way they scored against me… it’s not easy to get out of that chair after sitting there for 20 or 30 minutes and make a break that is two or three times what they put on you. It helped that I had zero expectations of me,” he recalled.
Kothari will be next in action at a snooker event next week in Mumbai followed by “an IPL-style” snooker league in Ahmedabad. There’s also the IBSF World Snooker Championships in India, likley in Indore, to look forward to later this year.
