Yasin Merchant Doubles Classic Snooker Tournament

Islam Gymkhana - Mumbai

14-21 February 2008

Yasin Alok duo on winning street

Yasin Merchant and Alok Kumar had a winning start to the inaugural Yasin Merchant Classic Invitation Snooker Doubles Tournament, organized by the Yasin Merchant Fan Club, at the Islam Gymkhana on Thursday when we saw the timeouts being used.

The timeouts in snooker are different from those, say in basketball when play is stopped. Here the players request more time (15 seconds) than the stipulated 25 seconds per shot if they feel they are on a difficult shot. Three timeouts per match are allowed. Indian Lions Yasin Merchant and Alok Kumar, favourites for the title along with Young Turks Pankaj Advani / Manan Chandra used all three while beat Action Jackons Sarang Shroff / Kamal Chawla 4-2, the latter using two timeouts. The extra point came from Alok's break of 63.

Said Yasin: "It took time to shake off the pressure off the new format. But we realized there was no need to run around because of the time-frame for every visit."

Alok Kumar is a notoriously slow player and many players say he breaks their rhythm. But he wasn't timed out as happened with Amit Saboo on the opening day. Alok sparkled with a break of 63.

Report :: Pradeep Vijayakar