Snooker

Overview

Origin

British India

Category

Precision

Olympic discipline

No

Paralympic discipline

No

Central pathway

Federation and state pathway

Athlete profiles on SportSupport

19

Governance and status

Each field below is shown only where we hold a source for it; anything else reads “Not currently verified” rather than a guess. Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports recognition is granted year by year, so it is only ever shown with the year it applies to. Last reviewed: September 2026.

Indian governing/organising body

BSFI

Ministry recognition

Billiards and Snooker Federation of India — Annual recognition renewed by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports — as at 2026Source: Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports — List of recognised National Sports Federations

International federation

Not currently verified

Khelo India inclusion

Not currently verified

TOPS eligibility

Not currently verified

Olympic status

Not on the Olympic programme

Paralympic status

Not a Paralympic discipline

Scholarships & Funding

Central, state and private scholarships available for snooker athletes in India.

• Khelo India Talent Identification & Development (KITID)

  Stipend, boarding, coaching and kit at accredited centres for talent identified through the Khelo India selection process (Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports). Applies only to disciplines on the official Khelo India Games list, and only to athletes it selects.

• National Sports Development Fund (NSDF)

  Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports fund used to sponsor elite athletes' training, foreign coaches and equipment. Allocations are made case by case; we hold no record of NSDF support specific to snooker.

• Pension for Meritorious Sportspersons

  Lifetime monthly pension for retired internationals who meet the scheme's medal criteria at Asian, Commonwealth or World Championship level — Government of India. Whether a given snooker event counts depends on the scheme's notified list.

• State sports quota and government employment

  Many states reserve government and public-sector posts for national-level medallists. Which snooker events and which certifying bodies a state accepts varies by state, so check your state's current notification.

• Aditya MehtaMaharashtra

  Aditya Mehta (born 31 October 1985) is an Indian former professional snooker player. He participated on the World Snooker Tour for the 2007–08 season, and between 2011 and 2018. He reached a highest world ranking of 49.

• Amee KamaniIndia

  Amee Kamani (born 3 June 1992) is an Indian snooker player. She was runner-up in the 2016 International Billiards and Snooker Federation World Snooker championship, losing 0–5 in the final to the defending champion Wendy Jans. Kamani was the 2018 Asian Billiards Sports Championships Ladies (ACBS Asian Snooker Championship) Champion after defeating Siripaporn Nuanthakhamjan 3–0 in the final, and was runner-up at the 2014 Australian Open (0–3 to Jessica Woods) and the 2019 International Billiards and Snooker Federation Women's six-reds snooker championship (2–4 against Nutcharut Wongharuthai).

• Anuja ThakurIndia

  Anuja Chandra-Thakur (born 1983) is an Indian amateur player of snooker and English billiards. She won the WLBSA Ladies World Billiards Championship title in April 2005, in a 243–136 victory over Lynette Horsburgh of Scotland, and reached the semi-final at the 2006 IBSF World Snooker Championship in Amman, Jordan, where she was eliminated by Jaique Ip 4–2.

• Anupama RamachandranIndia

  Anupama Ramachandran (born 19 May 2002) is an Indian snooker and English billiards player. She won the Asian snooker championship for women in 2024 and the 2025 women's IBSF World Snooker Championship.

• Arantxa SanchisMaharashtra

  Arantxa Sanchis is a female professional English billiards and snooker player from India. She won a gold medal in the Women's Team event at the inaugural IBSF World 6-Red Snooker and Team Snooker Championship in Carlow, Ireland, on 6 October 2013. It was a historic first gold medal for Indian women's snooker at a World Championship.

• Brijesh DamaniWest Bengal

  Brijesh Damani (born 22 November 1982 at Kolkata, West Bengal) is an Indian snooker player. He won the 2008 Indian National Snooker Championship. He also won silver medal in 2010 Asian Games in China.

• Chandra HirjeeMaharashtra

  Chandrasinh Hirjee Jewraj (1924–1989), known simply as Chandu to friends and fans and often referred to by the media as The Stylist, was an Indian amateur billiards and snooker player. He represented Bengal and India in domestic and world championships - the World Amateur Billiards Championship and the World Amateur Snooker Championship. He won the inaugural World Amateur Snooker Championship held at Kolkata (then Calcutta) in 1958.

• Chitra MagimairajIndia

  Chitra Magimairaj (born 7 April 1973, Bangalore), is an Indian professional player of snooker, English billiards, and pool. She is a two-time World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association World Champion of English Billiards (2006, 2007), a two-time national pool champion, and more recently the World Women's Senior Snooker Championship (2014 and 2016). Her highest breaks are 91 at snooker and 49 at English billiards.

• Geet SethiDelhi

  Geet Siriram Sethi (born 17 April 1961) of India is a professional player of English billiards who dominated the sport throughout much of the 1990s. He is also a notable amateur (ex-pro) snooker player. He is a five-time winner of the professional-level and a three-time winner of the amateur world championships, and holder of two world records, in English billiards.

• Himanshu Dinesh JainIndia

  Himanshu Dinesh Jain (born 6 September 1991) is an Indian former professional snooker player. Jain turned professional as one of the two qualifiers from the second Asia & Oceania event of the 2022 Q School, earning a two-year tour card for the 2022–23 and 2023–24 snooker seasons. He became the fifth Indian to make an entry into the professional circuit and the first to do so via qualification rather than their Asian or World Championship ranking.

• Ishpreet Singh ChadhaIndia

  Ishpreet Singh Chadha (Hindi: इशप्रीत सिंह चढ्ढा, born 30 May 1996) is an Indian snooker player. He has earned a two-year card on the World Snooker Tour starting with 2023–24 snooker season.

• Kreishh GurbaxaniMaharashtra

  Kreishh Gurbaxani (born 23 August 2002) is an Indian snooker player from Mumbai. He earned a two-year card on the World Snooker Tour starting from the 2024–25 snooker season.

• Lucky VatnaniTelangana

  Lucky Vatnani (born 23 December 1985) is an Indian former professional snooker player. He is from Hyderabad, India, but was based in Sheffield, England during his snooker career.

• Manan ChandraIndia

  Manan Chandra (born 28 February 1981 in New Delhi) is an Indian amateur snooker and pool player. Chandra reached the semi-final at the 2006 IBSF World Championships in Amman, Jordan, where he was eliminated by Daniel Ward 8–7. Chandra is married to Anuja Thakur, who is also a successful Indian amateur snookers and billiards player.

• Omprakesh AgrawalIndia

  Omprakesh Bankelal Agrawal also known as either Omprakash Agarwal or Omprakash Agrawal (27 April 1955 – 15 May 1994), was an Indian professional snooker player. As an amateur, he was world champion in 1984.

• R Umadevi NagarajIndia

  Revanna Umadevi Nagaraj (born 11 February 1965), is an Indian professional player of English billiards and snooker. She is a World Women's Billiard champion (2012) and a six-time Indian national Billiards champion. She had defeated Eva Palmius during the London 2012 Championship to become the World Champion.

• Subhash AgarwalIndia

  Subhash Agarwal (born 28 July 1948) is an Indian professional player and coach of English billiards and snooker. A National Snooker Champion of India, he was the runner-up in the 1983 amateur IBSF World Billiards Championship, losing to Michael Ferreira 2744–3933. In 1995 he defeated Peter Gilchrist in the final of the UK Championship, making him the first Indian national to win a ranking event held in the UK.

• Vidya PillaiTamil Nadu

  Vidya Viswanathan Pillai (born 26 November 1977) is an Indian professional snooker player. Vidya Pillai grew up in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. In recognition of her achievements, the Government of Karnataka bestowed her with the Ekalavya award in 2016 for outstanding performance in Sports.

• Yasin MerchantMaharashtra

  Yasin Merchant (born 17 December 1966) is India's second professional snooker player. The late Omprakesh Agrawal was the first. Merchant won the National Snooker championships on 3 occasions, in 2001, 2000 and 1991.

Rules

Snooker is played on the same 12ft x 6ft table with 22 balls — one white cue ball, 15 reds worth 1 point each and six colours (yellow 2, green 3, brown 4, blue 5, pink 6, black 7). A break is built by alternating a red with a colour, the colours being respotted each time until the reds are gone, after which the colours must be cleared in ascending value; the maximum break is 147 (or 155 with a free ball). A player continues while legally potting and hands over the table on a miss or foul, with fouls carrying a minimum 4-point penalty awarded to the opponent. Failing to hit the ball on, potting the cue ball, or hitting a ball out of sequence are all fouls, and an opponent left without a direct line to any ball on is said to be snookered — the referee may then call a free ball or, after a foul-and-a-miss, order the shot to be replayed. Matches are decided over a set number of frames.

Authoritative rulebook: BSFI. Age-group and school-level variations are published by SGFI and the state associations each season.

Positions

Typical roles across precision sports. These are category-level descriptions, not a sourced snooker squad list.

• Rifle / pistol events
  10m air, 25m and 50m disciplines shot to an electronic target.
• Shotgun events
  Trap and skeet — moving clay targets scored on hits.
• Archery — recurve & compound
  Ranking round and head-to-head elimination matches.
• Team events
  Three-athlete team formats contested at Asian, Commonwealth, World and Olympic level.

Equipment

Standard kit and infrastructure required to train and compete in snooker at a federation-recognised event.

• 12ft x 6ft snooker table with heated slate bed, napped cloth and six pockets
• Set of 22 balls (52.5mm): white cue ball, 15 reds and six colours
• Cue with leather tip, plus a shorter break-building cue and chalk
• Triangle rack, rest, spider, swan neck and extensions
• Overhead table lighting rig and scoreboard
• Table brush, iron, cloth cover and tip-maintenance tools

Governing/organising body

Major Indian Events

Domestic competitions we hold a source for in snooker.

• National Billiards and Snooker Championships

  Organized by the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI) across Senior, Junior and Sub-Junior categories; the 91st edition was held in Indore in 2024-25. This is the sole qualifying event for Asian and World Championship selection. Pankaj Advani has won the tournament dozens of times across both disciplines (36th overall national title, 10th men's snooker crown, as of the 91st edition).

International Events

Continental and world-level competitions we hold a source for in snooker.

• IBSF World Billiards and Snooker Championships

  Pankaj Advani holds the record for IBSF world titles (20+, across billiards timed/point formats and multiple snooker formats), and is one of only two cueists in history — after Malta's Paul Mifsud — to win world titles in both billiards and snooker.

• Asian Games

  Advani won billiards gold at both Doha 2006 and Guangzhou 2010.

• Asian Billiards and Snooker Championships

  India has produced multiple champions, including Yasin Merchant (India's first Asian Snooker champion, 1989) and Advani, a multiple-time champion in both disciplines.

Leagues

No dedicated professional league is currently catalogued for snooker. The national championship under BSFI remains the top domestic competition.

International Players

Globally recognised snooker athletes to know outside India.

The international federation for snooker maintains the current world ranking — check the federation site for the up-to-date top names.

Career Options

Ways to build a career in snooker — on the field, on the sidelines and behind the scenes.

• Pankaj Advani became India's youngest World Snooker champion at 18 (2003) and turned professional on the main snooker tour for the 2012-13 season
• Government honours reflect his stature: Arjuna Award (2004), Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna (2006 — the first ever for billiards/snooker), Padma Shri (2009) and Padma Bhushan (2018)
• Despite this, Advani has spoken candidly about cue sports receiving comparatively little recognition and funding in India relative to his results — worth keeping visible rather than only citing the medal count
• Public sector employment is a real career pathway — Advani is employed by ONGC, rival Brijesh Damani by Indian Oil (IOCL), both while competing full-time
• Depth beyond Advani includes Sourav Kothari and a growing women's circuit led by players like Varshaa Sanjeev; playing pathway through BSFI's state associations and the National Championships

No snooker academies are catalogued in the directory yet. Browse the full academy list or list your academy to appear here.

FAQs

Common questions about snooker in India.

Snooker in every state & UT

Dedicated pages for Snooker in each Indian state and Union Territory — academies, schemes, athletes and how to start.

• Snooker in Andhra Pradesh
• Snooker in Arunachal Pradesh
• Snooker in Assam
• Snooker in Bihar
• Snooker in Chhattisgarh
• Snooker in Goa
• Snooker in Gujarat
• Snooker in Haryana
• Snooker in Himachal Pradesh
• Snooker in Jharkhand
• Snooker in Karnataka
• Snooker in Kerala
• Snooker in Madhya Pradesh
• Snooker in Maharashtra
• Snooker in Manipur
• Snooker in Meghalaya
• Snooker in Mizoram
• Snooker in Nagaland
• Snooker in Odisha
• Snooker in Punjab
• Snooker in Rajasthan
• Snooker in Sikkim
• Snooker in Tamil Nadu
• Snooker in Telangana
• Snooker in Tripura
• Snooker in Uttar Pradesh
• Snooker in Uttarakhand
• Snooker in West Bengal
• Snooker in Andaman & Nicobar Islands
• Snooker in Chandigarh
• Snooker in Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu
• Snooker in Delhi
• Snooker in Jammu & Kashmir
• Snooker in Ladakh
• Snooker in Lakshadweep
• Snooker in Puducherry