Junior billiards and snooker champion Shahbaz Adil Khan of West Bengal has been stripped of his titles after being found overage.
Shahbaz had emerged as champion in the recently-concluded DY Patil Vidyapeeth Junior National Snooker and Billiards Championship at PYC Hindu Gymkhana here.
Karnataka’s Mundir Sherazi (billiards) and Tamil Nadu’s Zubin Lelinwalla (snooker) were adjudged as the new champions by the Billiards and Snookers Federation of India.
Accepting part of the blame, Devendra Joshi, vice-president, Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI), said: “It
was a major goof-up. We checked every player’s record and original documents, but missed out on Khan.”
“According to the IBSF (International Billiards & Snooker Federation) rules, the player who is completing 21 years before December 2010, is not eligible to represent India at the Asian and World under-21 Championships. Khan turns 22 on October 24 this year, hence he was disqualified,” said Joshi.
“We can’t conduct the whole tournament again. The junior billiards and snooker winners are decided via a round-robin format and, hence, we announced the number two players, Mundir Sherazi and Zubin Lelinwalla as the champions,” he added.
For Shahbaz, who had won the junior double crown in 2008 and 2009, the victory here would have been a hat-trick. “I am disappointed. I was told, I am not eligible to represent India after winning the championship,” Khan told DNA.
However, he refused to put the blame on the organisers. “It was their duty to check the rules and regulations, and inform the players before the tournament started. To disqualify the player after the finals is unacceptable. But, it was my fault too. I should have checked the IBSF rules,” he said.
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