KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 — The Malaysian Snooker and Billiards Federation (MSBF) is deeply concerned with the absence of a development programme for the sport in the country.
MSBF president Melvin Chia said the last development programme ended a decade ago and it was certainly worrying for the future of the sport if no new talents were unearthed.
He said MSBF has a 100 per cent medal delivery record in the SEA Games since the 2001 edition in Kuala Lumpur, with only the colour of the medal varying, and the sport had also won a silver each in the 2006 Doha and 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.
“The last programme started in 2002 and the senior players are getting old. We embarked on a youth development programme with the support of NSC (National Sports Council) and the then director-general Datuk Mazlan Ahmad, gave us a training centre in Bukit Jalil.
“The programme was however, removed by the NSC in 2012 and our centre were given to another sport. From 2012 to 2019, we did not have a training centre and had to hop from one private snooker centre to another for our athletes’ training,” he told Bernama.
Melvin said throughout the seven-year period, no training allowances were allocated to athletes, with the federation just providing what it could afford in terms of development as the relevant agencies only helped on ad-hoc basics during the multi-sport events.
MSBF then managed to start up a small training centre in Sunway to resume their programme, but was forced to close down due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lack of support from the relevant bodies, he said.
“We have accumulated huge debts due to outstanding utilities and rental bills for over 15 months. After much appeal to NSC, they have assisted by contributing some funds for us to cover part of the outstanding sum.
“Through the recent appeal to OCM (Olympic Council of Malaysia) Trust Fund Committee, we were able to reopen the centre for our athletes to start training and preparations for the Hanoi SEA Games (from May 12-23),” he added.
Melvin stressed that if a development programme was not put in place with the support of the relevant agencies, Malaysia might not be having athletes to compete for medals at regional level within the next five years.
He said the negative perception surrounding the sport in the country, as snooker centres are sometimes used for illegal activities and gambling, had also made fundraising efforts challenging, even though the sport is a gentleman’s game.
At the 2019 Philippines SEA Games, Malaysia won a gold in the men’s snooker doubles through Moh Keen Hoo-Lim Kok Leong and a silver in the singles through Keen Hoo. — Bernama
