SIBU: The Sibu Division Billiards and Snooker Association (SDBSA) plans to host at least two snooker championships for this year.
Its president Joe Ting said the first was the Sibu Closed Championship tentatively fixed for early June.
“We have already decided on the venue and we will be calling for entries when everything is finalised,” he said when contacted.
Ting said the other event was the Sibu Snooker Challenge Cup for the latter half of the year.
“We are yet to find the sponsor for the Challenge Cup and we will name the Cup after the sponsor once we’ve got it,” he added.
Since he took over the presidency last year, Ting said he had been working closely with SDBSA members to revitalise the sport in Sibu which has been in the doldrums since recent years.
He admitted that membership was dwindling and the popularity of the game here had dropped.
Ting said he needed to inject fresh ideas into the sport so as to bring back all the players as well as to upgrade the standard of the sport here.
“Snooker remains a popular game here with more snooker centres established. Hopefully, SDBSA will continue to play an effective role to promote the game among the local enthusiasts,” he said.
On another matter, Ting disclosed they received an invitation from Malaysia Snooker and Billiards Federation to take part in the Selangor Open Invitational Snooker Championship in Kuala Lumpur later next month.
“Unfortunately, we cannot send any representative as our association has limited funds.
“It’s not that we do not have any good player but it takes quite a substantial amount just to send one player over to Kuala Lumpur to take part in the prestigious event,” he said.
Ting said the onus was on the Sarawak Billiards and Snooker Sports Federation (SBSSF) to send players to take part in the Selangor Invitational.
He opined that it would be a good exposure and experience for the players to take part in the championship as it was expected to attract most of the elite players in the country.