Conditioned to ACs, snooker's return maybe delayed

Cold facts

Cueists in the country have endured an anxious existence for over five months now. Unfortunately, this is likely to be their norm for some more time to come, and all because the sport has adopted a dependency on air conditioners.

With government guidelines barring the use of air conditioners to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in closed spaces, snooker clubs in the country have all but remained shut. The ones which have opened up have relied on floor fans to keep the spattering of members relatively comfortable while playing in rarely-ventilated spaces.

“The last time they opened up the club, the number of positive cases went up so I hope this time around, they will be mature in the way they go about opening up the club,” warns Vidya Pillai, referencing the Karnataka State Billiards Association.

“As for air conditioning, we cannot play without it. I think it won’t be a problem for amateurs because it’s not as intense, but for professionals like us, it’s a big deal. The way the ball rolls changes completely. If we train with the floor fan, hypothetically, we need to unlearn our current stroke and relearn it to work around the wind from the fan. Then what happens when we move back to air conditioners? It’s all too complicated,” she explains.

Varshaa Sanjeev, the young former national snooker champ, opined that the stringent dress code makes it harder for cueists to play without air conditioners.

“It’s next to impossible to play without air conditioners,” the 23-year-old Bengalurean said. “Most spaces where snooker is played have zero ventilation. It gets hot and humid even when air conditioners are running since we have such a stringent dress code: shirt, waistcoat and bow tie. The humidity affects the roll of the ball because the balls roll slower and they don’t split nearly as well. Also, with the floor fan, there will be wind blowing into our eyes, we cannot play.”

HR Rathan Kumar, the chairman of KSBA, insists that there will be no tournaments until the government approves the use of air conditioners at the club. “We have thrown open the clubs and about 10 members come and play with floor fans, but professionals can’t play with floor fans. Basically, until we can use air conditioners, we cannot conduct any tournaments at KSBA,” says Rathan.

He continues: “The concern is that the World Championships are coming up and some of our players will want to train. It’s a challenge and one that we cannot find a way around at this point. I don’t think we’ll be able to return to how it used to be anytime soon, possibly never.”

The snooker World Championships are tentatively slated to be held in November in Qatar, and many of the Indian athletes were ticketed to participate. “I am not sure I will be willing to go out and play snooker now,” says Aditya Mehta, the former pro-circuit player, from Mumbai. “Obviously, we can’t play with floor fans as they did some 30 years ago because we’re used to the ball rolling a certain way. More importantly, I am not willing to risk my elderly parents to play. I am privileged, in that, I am employed (by PSPB) and I don’t have to worry too much, but I can see why some players would not mind taking the risk to play. Personally, I have written off this year. ”

Pillai, the reigning women’s snooker champion, was one of them. “All I have done for the last two decades is play snooker, and this is the longest I have gone without playing. I cannot wait for them to open it up. I’ll risk the virus to play for sure. But that’s only if they announce a tournament and release a schedule.”