As the riches continue to be showered on the national cricket team, a former national snooker champion has a grouse with the government:

“I am the sole breadwinner of the family and despite being crowned as the national champion, I have no employment.”

Babar Masih was crowned national champion in 2016. He has won the Punjab Cup in 2012-13. And he has also won bronze at the World Championships. But today, Babar is struggling to make ends meet.

Despite Pakistani cueists having won 27 international titles, there is little encouragement for others to follow suit

“It has been two years now since I was promised a permanent job by Alamgir Anwar Shaikh, the then president of the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA),” narrates Babar. “But to his credit, Mr Shaikh did give us Rs100,000 each out of his own pocket.” He claims that he hasn’t received any rewards from the government despite the many promises.

Babar comes from humble roots in Rawalpindi but the family feared that snooker wouldn’t guarantee permanent employment opportunities. Fifteen years later, those apprehensions are ringing louder than ever before.

“I gave this sport 15 years of my life and literally got peanuts in return,” says a gloomy looking Babar. “How can I stay motivated to play snooker to support my family?”

Despite family opposition, he kept working hard to improve his game. “I developed an interest in snooker at an early age. I used to play pool before I decided to give snooker a chance,” says Babar. “My seniors used to tell me that I could do wonders for Pakistan if I worked on my game.” He finally made his debut in the Punjab Cup in 2007-08. “I had to wait for six years before clinching my first Punjab Cup title in 2012-13,” adds Babar.

He has been performing consistently over the last two years in which he has won the National Championship in 2016, has partnered with Muhammad Asif in Fujairah for the Asian Billiards Championship and won the gold medal there along with winning the bronze medal in the most coveted competition – the World Championship.

And yet, Babar’s lot has hardly improved.

Muhammad Sajjad, another well-renowned name in the Pakistani snooker fraternity, has trod a similar path. He was the runner-up in the Asian Championship-2010 and the winner of the Open Championship in Thailand the same year. “I went on to play for four years and made an entry in Pakistan Cup the next year,” adds Sajjad with a chuckle.

He grew up playing snooker in his neighbourhood in Sargodha and says that snooker meant the world to him since he was a child.

“I used to work as a jeweller before I decided to pursue a career as a cueist,” he recalls. “When I told my family that I wanted to play snooker, they immediately said ‘no’. They thought that I had lost my senses. But I requested them to let me play for two to three years and if I failed I would quit snooker and become a jeweller again.”

For Sajjad, Fateh Khan and Irfan Munna were two local players who motivated him to do well. But it was Bilal Mughal who set the tone for him. “In a city such as Sargodha, it was hard to find even a half decent snooker club,” he narrates. “Upon realising a need for it, Bilal Mughal not only formed a snooker club here but also trained and mentored me. I still remember he gifted me his cue which inspired me to go on further.”

Babar comes from humble roots in Rawalpindi but his family feared that snooker wouldn’t guarantee permanent employment opportunities. Fifteen years later, those apprehensions are ringing louder than ever before. “How can I stay motivated to play snooker to support my family?”

Sajjad claims that no snooker player is financially strong enough to support his family since most of them come from humble backgrounds. “Look! Me, Asif and Asjad are doing well because we have full-time jobs. We do not have to rely on the winnings only. For others, it is a problem. They don’t have adequate resources to provide for their families. This is where the departments should jump in,” he says.

Sajjad believes that the PBSA is playing its role in the development of the game in the country but it is the responsibility of the state and other authorities to ensure that no player who represents Pakistan at the international stage has to pinch pennies to ensure that his needs are met.

Naseem Akhtar, the winner of the Punjab Cup 2016 and National Championships Under-18 and U-21, however, disagrees with the view that most of the players are looked down upon by the state and departments. “A player should perform well in order to secure a job. Why would anyone hire someone who isn’t consistent with his performances?” questions Naseem.

“Those who have performed are employed. You cannot expect the departments to invest their money on once-in-a-blue-moon performers. It is as simple as that,” says a quirky Naseem. As far as support from the government is concerned, he is on the same page with Babar Masih and Muhammad Sajjad.

“Although I am pretty satisfied with the way things are going at the moment, I feel the government can do more to provide ample opportunities to snooker players,” adds Naseem. He is also quick to mention here that he had received Rs35,000 from the government on winning the Punjab Cup and Rs50,000 each on winning the National Championships, U-18 and U-21.

Naveed Kapadia, the technical advisor and media director of PBSA, however says that snooker has got a boost in Pakistan since 2010 and has resulted in players earning more money than ever before.

“We were digging up the stats and we found out that Pakistan has won 27 international medals including seven gold badges over the last seven years,” says Kapadia.

Kapadia also goes on to claim that snooker gets the most coverage in Pakistan after cricket. But he doesn’t have the official stats with him to back up his claim. “It would come as a surprise to you but snooker even beats hockey when it comes to media coverage, so I think it would be unfair to say that our players do not get exposure at all,” he adds.

The PBSA technical adviser remains adamant, however, that departments needed to hire more players so they could play more and earn more. “As of now, eight of our players are hired by different institutions,” he explains. “It’s a number that we would like to see go up in the future.”

Most of the aspiring players tend to shy away from seeking a career in professional sport such as snooker because of the lack of interest of the sponsors. This is also the very reason why most of them have to face opposition at home. Ghulam Soomro, the owner of a small local snooker club, says: “How can you expect youngsters to do well when their parents think of snooker as a waste-of-time activity?”

Soomro believes that parents feel there isn’t any scope in snooker and their children will only while away their time at snooker clubs. “Most kids are discouraged from going to snooker clubs because not only will it affect their grades in schools and colleges, but it will also give them easy access to cigarettes and drugs. Parents need to understand that it is a wrong perception,” adds Soomro.

For a sport that Pakistan has ruled, the cues being sent for youngsters are all the wrong ones. It’s time to stem the rot.

The writer is a member of staff. He tweets @HumayounAK

Published in Dawn, EOS, July 9th, 2017