Faisal Khan wants to be on cue

City-based snooker player Faisal Khan is aiming to do well in the inaugural Cue Slam, which will get underway in Ahmedabad from Saturday. Faisal is part of Chennai Strikers that also has icon player Pankaj Advani in the five-member team.

“The format is interesting. Rules like 10-minute per frame, 15 second per shot and so on will make it challenging for us. and so many rules will make it challenging for us. The format is fast, sharp and quick. We have to cope with the conditions quickly,” Faisal said about Cue Slam which is organised by SportsLive Entertainment in association with Billiards and Snookers Federation of India (BSFI).

On rubbing shoulders with 16-time world champion Pankaj we revealed they have been playing together since junior days and want to do well for their side. “We played for the first time together in junior championship in 2006. We have been together in international tournaments, camps, Asian and World Championships. I have beaten him and lost many times. It keeps happening. We want to do well for our side,” he said.

The city cueist, who works in commercial department of Central Railways at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, wants to go the next level. “Every year I am on the threshold before losing in quarter-final in Asian and World events. I want to break that barrier,” he admits.”You need to play consistently in Europe to turn into a professional. It needs a heavy amount to play in the pro circuit qualifying rounds. We lack sponsors,” he rued.

Faisal, however, is excited some good professional players like Darren Morgan are part of the event. Big guns like Advani, Sourav Kothari, Daren Morgan, Kelly Fisher, Chris Melling, Anastasia Nechaeva, Laura Evans and Mick Hill are part of the Cue Slam which has a prize money of '50 lakh.

“Darenis a quality player and plays as professional too. He beat me last time in quarter-final and went on to win that international tournament. There are other quality international players so it will be interesting to meet them,” he said.

The 31-year-old wanted to be a cricketer initially like his maternal uncle Shafiq Khan who represented Haryana in the domestic competitions including Ranji Trophy. However, the Delhi-born Faisal changed his mind and switched focus completely to cue sports before moving to Mumbai 11 years ago.

“I used to go with my mama (uncle), who was seven to eight years senior to me, to watch his cricket matches. Initially I also wanted to play cricket like him. But he told me there is lot of competition in this game so I changed my focus to cue sports. It has been my passion as I used to play after my school and I decided to pursue it further,” said Faisal, who plays for Khar Gymkhana and Central Railways. Faisal has been playing in Mumbai for 11 years and is impressed with the club culture here. However, he doesn’t rue about the fact that not many from the city have made their mark in snooker after Yasin Merchant who is now mostly into coaching.

“There aren’t good players like Yasin bhai. But there are few players on the threshhold of making it big. The likes of Aditya Mehta and Rahul Sachdev are good and others like Kiran Chedda are constantly knocking on the doors,” Faisal opined.