Newcomer Hardy Carloss has been a revelation at the recent Sarikei Open.
SIBU: Mark Yeo was among the many looking forward to the inaugural Sarikei Snooker Open Championship which ended in Sarikei last weekend.
There were great expectations for the major event to not only generate interest among the younger generation of players and help to raise the profile of the sport so often struggling to erase a negative image.
All appeared well but alas, during Yeo’s semi-final showdown with Kuching’s Rolando Lim, controversy arose over an incident when Yeo claimed the referee made a serious error of judgement.
Trailing 21-22 against Lim in the third frame after 1-1 stalemate, Yeo potted the green ball to take the lead at 24-22 with only four coloured balls remaining.
Just when he was about to aim for the brown ball, the referee stepped in and handed him a foul for touching the pink ball while potting the green.
Too bad, there was no CCTV recording to fall back on.
Yeo allowed the play to proceed but decided to retire after Lim secured the third frame.
He then took off his vest in protest and walked off.
To Yeo it was hard to re-focus after the judge’s decision.
Lim eventually went on to beat Tan Chin Yong in the final to lift the title.
“Because the pink and the cue balls are placed in such a reverse angle, there is no way I will touch the pink while potting the green,” Yeo argued.
The referee, however, insisted that he was 100 per cent sure Yeo touched the pink.
Whatever it was, a major tournament aimed at promoting friendly rivalry had somewhat backfired.
Now that the damage has
been done and the dust had settled, it is now up to the organisers, the referees and the players to sit down and seek an answer that could avert such an unpleasant and regrettable incident in future.
Surely, all will agree that the sport and its image should be paramount in any deliberations.
Good outcomes did result from the tournament including the rise of promising young players like Hardy Carloss and others from Kuching, Sibu and Sarikei. Efforts ought to be mounted to preserve and even build on these developments.