Billiards and snooker has taken a nose dive in Kandy. There are no tournaments as in the early days. In the past there were inter-club matches, but now such tournaments are not heard of.
In the early days clubs like Kings Cue Club, Catholic Club, Lawn Club, Public Service Club, Mahanuwara YMBA, Kandy YMMA, Kandy Garden Club, Kandy Club and Peradeniya Faculty Club took to the game very seriously and the tournaments were a great recreation to many sportsmen in the evening. However, billiards and snooker, which has been in the doldrums for many years, looks as if it is bound to come alive again as some of the past players along with Fais Samad have drawn up elaborate plans to revive it again.
At one time the most looked forward to tournament was the Kandy District ‘Lanka Plate’ Billiards and Snooker championships, organized by the Sri Lanka Billiards and Snooker Association with Kandy Billiards and Snooker Association supporting it.
MJ Marzook Wahid, a resident of Mahiyawa went on to represent Sri Lanka at the World championships in Canada and was the first to do so from Kandy. At that time he was playing for Kings Cue club.
Kandy YMMA was one of the founders of the Billiards and Snooker Association and have completely forgotten to switch on the table lights. At one time the YMMA table was on the floor, with all six table legs badly damaged. It was this writer who initiated with late Dr. Samad Ismail, ASM Naufel, Mamu Ismail and Afzal Marikar and repaired the table and the cloth.
Lawn Club which was housed at the premises of the present DS Senanayake Library gave a big hand for the game and some of the players were Dr. CDL Fernando, Parakrama Ranasinghe, Jadi Silva, S. Sangakkara, M. Vanderput, SB Karaliyadde, Abdul Razak and Mohideen Shah. This club does not exist anymore.
At one time Kandy Garden Club gave a big hand for the game for recreation purposes. They had players like Dr. CDL Fernando, Lester Cabral, GB Yatigamana.
Faiz Samad, Gazally Saheed, Simon Marawanagoda, Palitha Wickremasinghe, Mervin Jayasundara, Jhan Mohamed, S. Chandrakumar, PMB Amarasekera and George Hemachandra.
Thanks to keen cue promoters, Mahanuwara YMBA is the only club which keeps the game alive and they have some players who support.