It was a hard fought tournament with 28 teams participating. In the Zarine and Yazdi Daruvala Charitable Trust Mumbai Billiards League held through May-June 2013, the "Cannon Kings” team of the Dadar Parsee Colony Gymkhana (DPCG) emerged the winners, beating the Elphinstone Cricket Club (ECC) "Macho Daves” team in the finals. The DPCG team consisted of Malcolm Kapadia (captain), Khushrove Mody, the father-son duo of Khushroo and Marzban Amroliwalla, Rushad Patel and Navroze Vania. Teams from Bombay Gymkhana, the Cricket Club of India, the Parsi, P. J. Hindu, Chembur, Matunga and Khar Gymkhanas, National Sports Club of India, etc participated in the tournament conducted by the Billiards and Snooker Association of Maharashtra (BSAM). Daraius Mehta was the tournament director and Ronnie Daruwalla one of the organizing secretaries and member of the tournament committee.
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(From left) front row: Malcolm Kapadia, Navroze Vania, Marzban and Khushroo Amroliwalla,
(back) Rushad Patel and Khushrove Mody with billiards trophy;
chief guest Meher Bativala
In the finals, it was Patel who gave the Cannon Kings a good start by prevailing over ECC’s experienced Farhad Tengra. Vania had a match-winning break of 62, which was the highest in the finals, against Sunil Jain. Young Marzban Amroliwalla had a comfortable win over veteran Kaizad Mehta. Kapadia and Mody chipped in with good contributions in the earlier stages. DPCG’s up-to-date Billiards Hall was the venue for all matches from the play off stage. Leading players like Mahesh Jagdale, world No. 2 Dhruv Sitwala, Vishal Madan and Chandu Kansodaria took part in the tournament. Jaiveer Dhingra of the P. J. Hindu Gymkhana was the Player of the Tournament and Marzban Amroliwalla the Most Promising Player of the Tournament. Meher Bativala, sister of sponsor Zarine Daruvala, was the chief guest. The total prize money amounted to one lakh rupees.
"It was a total team effort and all my team members played very well, which resulted in our winning the tournament for the DPCG after a gap of 18 years,” Marzban Amroliwalla told Parsiana. On his debut in 2009, the young man had also been declared the Most Promising Player of the Tournament at the FOZAWAC (Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of Welfare and Culture) All Parsees Billiards and Snooker Tournament held at the ECC. He was also the winner of the billiards title in 2010 and 2011 and the runner-up in snooker in 2011 when the same tournament was held at the DPCG. Last year however Marzban lost the title to his sister Nilufer who has been the only lady participant in this tournament for the last few years! (Billiards and snooker differ mainly with respect to the number of balls used. In billiards only three balls are used — white, yellow and red. In snooker, 22 balls of different colors are used. Striking and scoring patterns also differ — editors)
"We are a unique billiards and snooker playing family,” says Khushroo Amroliwalla. "My father Hosie was a very good player and represented the Tata Sports Club for many years in cricket, billiards, snooker and table tennis. He also played cricket for Bombay for several years but just lost out on playing for the country. I have been a billiards and snooker player for long too and have represented the Tata Sports Club and the DPCG.” With Nilufer and Marzban also part of the league, "only my wife Rashna is left out of any kind of sporting activity. Ours must be the only gymkhana where three generations have played together at one time on several occasions!”