KOCHI: 2019 has already seen women cueists create history. 33-year-old Reanne Evans, who is an 11-time women’s world snooker champion and Emma Parker, who is the 2017 women’s world U-21 champion, became the first female cueists to compete live on television during the latter stages of a world ranking tournament in the UK.
Snooker is a mixed gender sport which allows women to compete with men in the same category unlike a majority of sports. Yet the participation of women is still considerably less and they continue to remain in the shadows. While seeing a female cueist playing in the World Snooker Championship may take time, one woman who is already making her presence felt at the world stage is Desislava Bozhilova, who is a snooker referee officiating in world tour matches. She is currently refereeing matches at the Indian Open. In January, she had officiated in the final of the German Masters.
The Bulgarian is the only woman referee to be a part of the Indian Open. Having officiated in five finals, she believes that there is no difference between men and women when it comes to ability and competitiveness.
“Everybody goes to cue schools and tournaments to qualify for professional tournaments. So if you are good enough, then it doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman,” Bozhilova said.
In the Indian Open, six Indians were given wildcard entries including one for 16-year-old Digvijay Kadian. When asked if a few women could have been given wildcard entries, Bozhilova says there should be just one criterion for it. “It all depends on one thing — whether you are good enough.”
The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association is making sustained efforts to promote snooker among women according to its chairman Jason Ferguson.“We have a women’s section to try and encourage more women to play. It’s more about numbers. There are more men playing snooker than women by far,” he said.
He added: “The women’s section has a qualification structure to the world snooker tour. The top two women from the women’s tour will qualify for the World Snooker Championship. It has been going on for the last two years and one of them even made the last 64. Now, we have a stronger Women’s World Championship and we also have UK Championship as well as an Asian Championship. We are growing slowly. The day I see the number of women competing is at par with men, then I will know that it has worked out.”
At the moment, Bozhilova is showing women can also excel at the highest level in a sport which is dominated by men. “I love snooker and wanted to be involved in some capacity. That is why I became a referee.”