Unhappy with BSFI, players' association writes to sports ministry

CHENNAI: Unhappy with the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI) for coming up with a 'vague formula' of inviting national champions on a rotation basis for its meetings, the players' association has written to the sports ministry seeking clarification on the issue. Members of the Billiards and Snooker Players Association of India (BSPAI) on Saturday also urged the BSFI to immediately reinstate its affiliation.

Cherag Ramakrishnan, the BSPAI president, during a virtual media interaction, said that the association wants to work with the federation since its revival in February this year but the latter has come up with its own formula of how the players should be represented.

Ace cueist Pankaj Advani, who is also BSPAI vice-president, echoed the sentiment and said, "The whole purpose of having the association is to ensure that the best players, not in terms of achievements but the most capable people, represent the association to talk about the players' interests."

The bone of contention seems to be the BSFI's recent decision of nominating two players, a male and a female, for the managing committee meeting with voting rights on a rotation basis.

Taking a strong exception to the decision, the players' association in a statement said, "We reserve our right to nominate the players of outstanding merit on the BSFI executive committee for sake of consistency of representation. This is because of how abruptly BSFI is imposing a vague formula of inviting national champions on rotation, keeping aside a recognized players' association. The BSFI formula is non-implementable since clarification of the Sports Ministry is also pending on clause 3.20."

The statement also said that the sports ministry has been apprised of the issue and the association is hopeful that the ministry will take corrective measures in this matter and intervene to support them and solve this problem.