 |
| Danny Wong |
SIBU (Dec 24): Sibu Division Billiards & Snooker Association (SDBSA) advisor Danny Wong cuts a dejected and disillusioned figure whenever he talks about uplifting the standard of snooker in the state.
The standard of the sport would forever remain stagnant, he stressed, unless there is the junior development programme implemented to tap new talented young players.
He puts the blame squarely on the Sarawak Billiards Sports and Snooker Federation (SBSSF).
“SBSSF is the governing body to look after the sport and if the governing body is not doing anything, what else can we do?” Danny asked following the recent Sarawak Closed Snooker Championship held in Sibu.
He said he had been calling on the SBSSF for years to make a serious effort to implement the junior development programme.
“However, all the effort and hard work SDBSA put forward to help revitalize and revolutionize the sport had been ignored.”
In fact, Danny claimed, snooker is the only sport in Sarawak without a junior development programme.
“And worse still, snooker is also the only sport in Sarawak that has yet to produce a respectable star player.
“I have been in the snooker fraternity for more than 50 years and I know inside out about the development of snooker in the state. The only fault lies with the SBSSF and if officials from SBSSF are willing to lend a hand, there will be no reason why the standard of snooker will remain in such a dire situation,” he continued.
Several top players who took part in the championship also echoed Danny’s sentiments on the state association and the importance of having a programme to develop a new generation of players.
“We need a breakthrough and we need to create at least one national player for the state team so that the player will bring inspiration to the state when he participates in the championship,” said Danny discussing the future of the sport.
He mentioned the 21-year-old Edmond Bong of Kuching Chia Ling Billiards Centre as one rising star while players like Jacob Wong, Jet Lee and Firdaus Fadzil also have a bright future.
Apart from them, the rest of the players taking part in the recent state championship were in their 40s, 50s and 60s.
Danny recalled seeing a beacon of hope last year when SBSSF president John Sikie said he would write to the Ministry of Social Development to request for three snooker and billiards tables to be placed at Civic Centre for students to train. An inter-school snooker championship within two years was also promised, he said.
“But until now, all these talks about placing the snooker and billiard tables at the Civic Centre remain very much an elusive dream. Without the tables, we cannot do anything,” he argued.
Then early this year, Danny said, SBSSF came up with another proposal to stage the championship for the southern, central and northern zones.
The top four winners in the respective zones were also promised a trip to Kuala Lumpur to take part in the Asian Invitational Snooker Championship.
Danny said the players were fired up about the trip and they took part in the game with full participation.
“This just showed how much the players loved the game and loved to represent the state in bigger tournaments.”
He said the competitions were staged and the top four winners from each zone were determined, but they later received notification from SBSSF that the trip would be delayed.
The players, he added, are demoralized.
Despite all the broken promises Danny believed the players would still soldier on because of their love for the sport.
“Of course, we do hope to see the light at the end of the tunnel one day,” as he ended on a rare positive note. -TheBorneoPost
No comments:
Post a Comment