THERE was a poignant moment when Pakistan’s teen sensation Ahsan Ramzan overcame his more illustrious compatriot and defending champion Mohammad Asif in the semi-finals of the IBSF World Snooker Championship last week. Flushed with emotion, the 16-year-old broke into tears as he hugged two-time winner Asif, who held Ahsan close like an elder brother. It seemed like the passing of the baton. There is something about winning against one’s sports idol and Ahsan’s reaction said it all. It was that win that spurred him on in the final against Iran’s Amir Sarkhosh, where a stirring comeback from 4-2 down saw him become the second-youngest winner in the history of the world championship with a 6-5 triumph. Ahsan is only the third Pakistani winner at the event, following in the footsteps of the trailblazing Mohammad Yousuf, who won in 1994, and Asif, who captured the title in 2012 and 2019. In this year’s championship in Doha, Pakistan had three representatives in the semi-finals, with Mohammad Sajjad losing to Amir in the other last-four clash. In the shorter Asian 6-Reds event, which concludes this week, Asif fell in the semi-finals, assuring a bronze for Pakistan.

All these feats have come with little or no government support or patronage. The Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation has been appealing to the minister of inter-provincial coordination for long for financial assistance. As it stands, it hasn’t received an annual grant from the Pakistan Sports Board for the last four years. In fact, finances are so bad that monthly payments to centrally contracted players have been on hold. Moreover, the PBSA says that the government grant for foreign trips by players to represent Pakistan too hasn’t been fully paid to it. In view of all this, the achievements of Pakistan’s cueists, most notably Ahsan, become all the more special. One wonders how far they can actually go with more support. Right now, Pakistan is on top in the snooker world, but if help doesn’t come soon, it might not stay there for long.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2022