KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Snooker and Billiards Federation's (MSBF) main priority now is to revive their national development programme to stay in the hunt for gold at the 2023 Sea Games in Myanmar.
While veterans like Moh Keen Hoo and Thor Chuan Leong can still be relied on for next year's delayed Hanoi Sea Games, MSBF president Melvin Cheah fears for the national team's future beyond that.
However, MSBF's development programme faces challenges as it's not easy for cue sports like snooker, pool and billiards to get corporate sponsors due to their image being linked to factors like illegal betting.
In 2002, the National Sports Council (NSC) helped cue sports by offering training facilities in Bukit Jalil. MSBF began their national development programme there.
Sea Games gold medallist Moh Keen Hoo came from this, while the second cycle of the programme from 2007-2012 saw the emergence of Thor Chuan Leong who went on to play in the United Kingdom besides excelling at Sea Games and Asian levels.
The other notable players who were part of the programmes are Lee Hwa Meng, Lee Poh Soon, Lai Chee Wei, and pool players Ibrahim Amir and Esther Kwan.
However, internal turmoil in MSBF saw the national body suspended in 2012, and their development programme disrupted when NSC stopped their funding. Cue sports were eventually demoted from NSC's Core Sports programme.
"We badly need to revive the development programme which had provided some good players. When it started in 2002, we had proper training programmes for our players for the Sea Games and Asian Games," said Melvin.
"After the programme ended in 2012, we still managed to win honours at Sea Games-level as Chuan Leong, Keen Hoo and several other players from the previous programmes were still around.
"Despite funding issues, we managed to begin a new programme in 2019 where 10 players – five of them below 16 – started full-time training at our development centre in Sunway.
"However, the effort has been curtailed by the pandemic and our fear is that lack of funding will see us struggle when we restart the programme eventually."
In order to generate funds to pay for rental and utilities, MSBF allow the public to play at their training centre in Sunway.
"We ensure that the training sessions do not clash with the public sessions, and no drinking or smoking is allowed. There is no interaction between our players in the programme and social players using the facilities. This has given confidence to parents to allow their children to train under our programme," added Melvin.
"While we wait for the pandemic to ease, our biggest concern is the lack of corporate sponsors funding our programme.
"Success in its development would be able to change the image of cue sports, and we need the help of corporate companies as well as financial assistance from the government to sustain the growth of our programme.
"Our long term goal is to have at least one development centre in every state where we can identify talents as young as 11 to undergo formal training. Such moves have been fruitful in the UK and China where they have continuously produced top class players.
"Funding has been a stumbling block and if this continues, cue sports are headed towards a slow death."
MSBF saw developer Datuk Mohamed Anis Hisham elected as their deputy president last month in the hope that the move will lead to corporate figures chipping in with funding.
Melvin has not given up, and is hopeful of reviving cue sports with the help of Anis.
