THE standard of sports has gone down in Pakistan and the land which dominated hockey, cricket and squash in the past is nowhere at the top due to the negligence of the government and officials at the helm.

But there is one sport that became all the rage with the help of the people, and Pakistan now holds as many as three titles in it. I am of course referring to snooker.

One doesn’t really know how snooker arrived in Pakistan, but if one is asked which city made the game popular in the country, the answer would be the city of lights. It was in Karachi that snooker tables were set up in the 1980s for those youth who had nothing better to do as night descended upon the city.

For those who had no interest in going to cinemas or didn’t consider cricket as their piece of cake (mostly because they were not selected in their neighbourhood teams), they considered their friends with snooker cues in hand as cool. Mind you, that was the time before video games were common in Pakistan and foosball (table football) was the best thing known to Karachiites.

Thank God that the law and order situation in the city wasn’t as bad in those days as it is now, otherwise many people wouldn’t have dared step inside the snooker dens where playing to win was the only way to play. Not only youngsters but oldies also visited these places and shared their experiences with those who had the skills to do more than win local tournaments. And when Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf won the IBSF World Snooker Championship in 1994, the win breathed new life into the snooker clubs that gave video game shops a run for their money.More and more youngsters began to throng the snooker clubs and soon the game’s popularity spread throughout the country. In no time, snooker became a favourite pastime of those who didn’t have a liking for sports that made you sweat and players who relied on their acumen and skills started to become professional cueists with the passage of time.

Fast forward to 2013 — Pakistan is now one of the leading countries in snooker and is the reigning champion in as many as three tournaments at the world level. Mohammad Asif is considered one of the best amateur cueists in the world and has been part of all the three victories for Pakistan, although he hasn’t been supported by the government despite promises.

Many criticise the cueists from Pakistan for not doing well in the professional category, but considering that they mostly come from humble backgrounds, have minimal possible coaching and no government support, whatever they have achieved is monumental by international standards. The game of snooker is here to stay, and it should be remembered that Karachi gave Pakistan this opportunity.—OA