The BOSM English Press sat down with Aryan Jain, the captain of the snooker team, to gain insight into the team’s preparations for BOSM.
Snooker is a sport where two players compete against each other to ‘pot’ balls in a specific sequence using a ‘cue’ ball. To score points, a player must pot a red ball first, followed by a ball of their choosing. The number of points scored depends on the colour of the ball, with the player who scored the most points winning the ‘frame’. Depending on the stage of the tournament, four to seven frames are played by three or four players from the team, and the number of frames each player can play in a stage is capped. Players can lose points to their opponent by potting the cue ball, hitting the wrong ball, or missing the intended ball. It is a rather classy sport, played in suits professionally, and has a plethora of moves and strategies related to different kinds of spins.
Aryan mentioned how the team only has one table for snooker and one for pool, and for each sport, a maximum of two players can play against each other, so they scheduled 2 hour sessions where players competed against each other, playing till 1 am. The team was unable to practice as much due to a lack of tables, and were hopeful that it would get an American pool table and new sticks to practice with this semester. He also mentioned how, before the ACs were installed in SAC, the team had a tough time practising, since the snooker room was a closed space and the sport demanded an extreme amount of focus, which was difficult to achieve in the Pilani heat.
The team did not receive any medals in the previous edition of BOSM, facing fierce competition from nationally ranked players. The team’s major rivals included Manipal University Jaipur, O.P. Jindal University, and Ashoka University. Aryan mentioned that there were three teams: one for alumni and two for students MBA students and PhD scholars. To prepare players for the pressure of competing in BOSM, he introduced playing shootouts, where two players competed head-to-head to pot specific balls. Aryan said that it had improved team chemistry. He also introduced some workshops for aspiring players to learn and improve their game. Aryan remarked that the team also had more experienced players this semester, and that he was confident they would fare better this year.
On a concluding note, Aryan encouraged the GBM to attend the workshops and to reach out to the team to play either snooker or pool.