Cue Slam League is set to make a comeback

Cue Slam League, the franchise-based televised snooker and billiards tournament, is not dead yet and will make a comeback soon, world snooker team champion Aditya Mehta said in Kolkata on Monday.

Having grabbed the eyeballs in its inaugural edition in Ahmedabad in 2017, the five-team franchise tournament has ceased to exist. “Keep your eyes open, the Cue Slam League will come back soon,” said Mehta, who won the world snooker team title with Pankaj Advani in Mandalay in September.

“The inaugural edition saw incredible results. It was a huge hit. The blueprint is now ready and it will come back with more popularity. It does not happen overnight.”

Mehta also spoke about their bitter 2-3 loss to arch-rivals Pakistan in the Asian Team Championship in June and said they avenged their defeat in the World team event.

“Pankaj and Laxman played really well but we were outplayed. Snooker is one of those games the margins are very small. On that day, they were better than us. It was a sad day. Unfortunately, we were not good enough,” Mehta said.

“But in the world team event me and Pankaj made up for the loss and beat them in the group stages. The internal rivalry is not as big as it seems. There’s always a little extra magnitude when it comes to that match-up."

“India and Pakistan are one of the tops teams and we meet pretty often. We always clash in every tournament. Next time I promise we will do one better.”

Mehta is here for the XVI PSPB Inter-Unit Billiards and Snooker tournament beginning at the Bengal Rowing Club from Tuesday.

Some of the top names, including multiple times world champion Pankaj Advani of ONGC will be seen in action in the five-day tournament consisting team and individual events