Marker-player Prabhu shows his skills on the table

He played in the National 6-Red Snooker Championship in Chennai this week and reached the pre-quarterfinals.

The 33-year-old Prabhu hails from a poor family and his initiation to billiards and snooker was by chance. Born and brought up in Ernavoor near Thruvottriyur, Prabhu could study only till 10th standard. It was then that his friend Ashok, working as a marker at the Tamil Nadu Billiards and Snooker Association, told him that he could get a job at the TNBSA. 

“He told me my job was simple. I had to just take the balls that go into the pocket, place them over the table in assigned places and clean the table,” recounted Prabhu on how he came into the sport. 

In fact, Prabhu was being appointed in the place vacated by Ashok, who was taken as a marker by MCC. According to Prabhu, it was a standard practice that the association would allot the markers from its stable to various clubs on demands on a permanent basis.

“I used to watch Ashok do his job at MCC and I learned the game by watching top players in action,” said Prabhu, who started playing by 2003, two years after he turned a marker. He lost in the pre-quarterfinals of the State Junior Ranking Tournament. That was a beginning but Prabhu went from strength to strength. 

Prabhu was absorbed by Madras Gymkhana in 2008 for a full-time marker job. “The Gymkhana supported me in all my snooker and billiards engagements. Vikram Jalan, a former National junior player in charge of the billiards room and president of the club Anand Mohan encouraged me to play in tournaments in Chennai,” added Prabhu. In 2011, Prabhu finished in the top eight in the state in snooker and two years later he beat Sidharth Rao to win the title.

“I could compete in the National at Lucknow thanks to Gymkhana’s help. I lost to Pankaj Advani in the round of 32 there,” said Prabhu, who did not forget his marker colleagues at Gymkhana who did his when he was away in tournaments. However, he could not participate in many tournaments outside Chennai due to financial constraints.