Players bemoan the decline and fall of pool
Players bemoan the decline and fall of pool
0 Comments | DNA. Sunday; Mumbai, Jul 25, 2010 | by Kumar, Nandini
At 60, Heena Khandelwal was one of the oldest participants at the recently concluded Asian Games selection trials for 9-ball pool. Khandelwal was in her late 30s when she developed a fascination for 9-ball pool. “It was boredom that got me striking a few balls on a snooker table at a city club,” says the cueist from Kolkata.
Much like Khandelwal, since the late 70s and early 80s several women in India have taken to the popular cuesports snooker and pool. In Khandelwal’s case, it was waiting all day long for her husband, who is an avid snooker player to finish his frames that got her involved in the game.
“How much can one socialise or sip coffee at the club and wait for your husband to call it a day at the snooker table? I got bored doing it. So one day I decided to pick up the cue myself. To my surprise, the men at the club were very supportive and I was taught by Yasin Merchant’s [Asian Games gold medalist] father. And mind you, this was in the 80s,” recalls Khandelwal.
Pool has been a tremendously popular sport among men and women across the globe, and India saw an upsurge in people playing pool in the late 90s and early noughties.
However, things are not as simple as they were 10 years ago
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