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KARACHI: Pascal Guillaume, president of the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF), has said that while inflation could compel the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the host cities to curtail the number of disciplines in the Olympics, his organisation was making efforts to coordinate with World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS) for the inclusion of billiards sports (carom, snooker, billiards) in the Games.
“It is one of my main goals,” Guillaume, who is here in connection with the seven-nation international snooker championship, told Dawn on Tuesday.
Secretary IBSF, Mohammed El Kammah and President of the PBSA, Alamgir Shaikh were also present. “We’ve introduced billiards sports for women since 2003 and plans to amend the IBSF constitution in line with the IOC that will raise the mandate of office-bearers from two to four years,” he added.
The 51-year-old French official, who is at the helm of IBSF since 2004, said though billiards sports had been part of World Games since 2001 and was taking place every four years, efforts were afoot to encourage women’s participation.
Guillaume, who played the baize game in 80s and 90s before taking over presidentship of French Billiards Federation in 1995, said IBSF has introduced anti-doping test in World Championships since 2007-08 to meet the IOC criteria. “Our sport is clean so far as no player has been found guilty yet,” he said in response to a query.He responded in affirmative when asked if the baize game had been dropped from the Incheon Asian Games after remaining medal sport since 1998.
Guillaume added that the ACBS president Sindhu Pulsirivong has a lot of clout and was lobbying for its inclusion in the Asiad. He said popularity of the game can be gauged from the fact that some 82-83 countries around the globe were affiliated with IBSF.
Guillaume, who is on his second visit to Pakistan - the first being in the 1993 World Snooker Championship - praised the PBSA, particularly, its president, Alamgir Shaikh, for breaking the ice by staging an international event. “It’s a good opportunity to show to the world that things were improving in Pakistan,” he added.
He disclosed that IBSF has awarded television rights of IBSF World under-21 meet in China in July and the men’s world championship in Egypt in November to Euro Sports which has a huge viewership in Europe.
Guillaume pointed out various instances where players and officials were facing difficulties in getting visas and had to skip major events.
He also recalled the finals when Mohammad Yousuf won the world title at Johannesburg in 1994 and Saleh Mohammad lost the title battle to young Pankaj Advani in 2003 at Jiangmen, China.—AZ
