S.H.M. Aslam, who is a three-wheel driver by profession, says: "I didn’t get any kind of support from the Billiards and the Snooker Association (B&SA) of Sri Lanka to represent Sri Lanka in the 7th Asian Billiards Championship which ended in Myanmar last week."

He continued adding: "I won the 8-Ball Championship last year and I was the runner-up in the National Billiards Championship as well last year. I beat K.H. Sirisoma, who had won the National Billiards Championship on 17 occasions, in the final. So there’s lot of talent in me. But there’s no support for me from the B&SA. It’s disappointing that I have spent my own money to represent Sri Lanka. It’s ok if I was a millionaire but that’s not the case. I’m just a poor person."

"I knew that Sri Lanka would be out from the very first round at the Asian Billiards Championship as our standards are still not up to the mark but we needed some international experience to take this game forward."

The 7th Asian Billiards and 9th Under-21 Asian Snooker Championships got underway at Kandawgyi, Myanmar, on April 5, with the participation of 55 players from 14 countries, including the defending champion and four other former world billiards champions. Both championships are to come to an end on April 12.

Runner-up at the 2007 National Billiards Championship, S.H.M Aslam and the well known K.H. Sirisoma represented Sri Lanka at this championship. Five players from Myanmar, three each from India and Singapore and two each from Iran, South Korea, Malaysia, Qatar, Thailand and Vietnam took part in the 7th Asian Billiards Championship, while five snooker players from Myanmar, three each from China, India, Iran, Pakistan and Thailand and two each from Iraq, South Korea, Qatar, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates took part in the 9th Under-21 Asian Snooker Championship.

Anyhow, Aslam has faced six matches in the 7th Asian Billiards and has won two of them, including one through a walk-over. He defeated Jung Tae Hoon of Korea by three sets to nil and it was followed by the walk-over he got from Sumarno of Indonesia.

He lost to Aung Sun Oo of Myanmar by three sets to nil and against Moh Loon Hong of Malaysia in the same pattern. And the same result came on his way in his match against Peter Edward Gilchrist of Singapore. He lost to Min Sithu Tun of Myanmar by three set to one.

Meanwhile K.H. Sirisoma, who has the support of his employer to attend the championship, won three matches out of six he played in. He won the first match against Sea Seung Beom of Korea by three sets to nil and then he defeated Hesam Pooyan Fard of Iran by three sets to nil.

Sirisoma lost to Thawat Sujaritthurakam (Thailand), Geet Sethi (India), Kyaw Oo (Myanmar) and Roslan Yurnalis (Malaysia).