KSBA to host World Snooker

“The confirmation from the world body came late last night,” said Billiards and Snooker Federation of India secretary S Balasubramaniam on Wednesday.

“Once Bahrain pulled out due to the civil unrest there and China backed out due to a packed schedule, the choice was India.

“When IBSF approached us (BSFI), the only venue in our mind was KSBA. It has the best cue sports facility in the country, and having hosted international snooker and billiards events earlier, it was unanimous that KSBA would be the host. But we had to make sure that we could get all the logistics in place as we were scheduled to host the inaugural 6-red World snooker championship at KSBA (from Dec 5-12) as well. Finally, we decided upon the traditional 15-red event,” added Balasubramaniam.

KSBA, hailed as the mecca of cue sports in the country, had to sacrifice the 6-red meet for the traditional format.

“That was our only concern,” said Balasubramaniam. “After much deliberation, IBSF convinced us into hosting the 15-red event instead of the 6-red. More than anything, they wanted continuity.

“However, it doesn’t mean the 6-red is ruled out. Getting sponsorship for two big events so close to each other is difficult. We will try our best, but as things stand now, the 6-red won’t be happening from Dec 5-12.”

Bangalore last hosted a world championship event in September 2008 when it received appreciation for the smooth conduct of the World Billiards Championship (both time and points format). In the World Snooker Championship, cueists from nearly 45 countries will participate with some of the top guns expected to compete.