Securing the third spot among 28 competing teams at the CCI Kekoo Nicholson BSAM (The Billiards and Snooker Association of Maharashtra) Billiards League in May 2025 was the Dadar Parsee Colony Gymkhana (DPCG) team, named Cannon Kings. Led by captain Malcolm Kapadia, the four other members of the only all-Parsi team were Rohinton Daruwalla, Marzban Amroliwalla, Kaiwan Olia and Fareez Vasania, noted a write-up by Khushroo Amroliwalla who was on the 2013 DPCG team that had won The Zarine and Yazdi Daruvala Charitable Trust Billiards League held under the auspices of BSAM. While in 2025 the prize money was Rs 16,500, in 2013 they were given Rs 50,000 as winners.
Playing since the last 15 years, 42-year-old Kapadia who runs a business practices four days a week. He was also the captain of the Cannon Kings team which had won the Maharashtra Billiards League in 2013 defeating the formidable Elphinstone Cricket Club team. He has been a winner of the All Parsi Billiards Tournament.
Clockwise from top l: Cannon Kings winning team in 2013 (from l):
Malcolm Kapadia, Rushad Patel, Navroz Vania, Khushrove Mody, Marzban and Khushroo Amroliwalla;
Cannon Kings players in 2025: Kapadia; Khushroo Amroliwalla (l); Kaiwan Olia; Rohinton Daruwalla
Thirty-two-year-old Marzban, who is self-employed, has been playing since the age of 14, inspired by his father Khushroo and grandfather Hosie (Hoshang, erstwhile cricketer) whom he used to observe in action as a toddler. Hosie continued to play billiards till he was in his eighties, practicing with a player in his nineties, revealed Khushroo. Marzban too had played for the 2013 Cannon Kings team when he was declared the Most Promising Player of the Tournament. Besides winning the All Parsi Billiards Tournament in 2010 and 2011, he was also the runner-up in the All Parsi Snooker Tournament in 2011. Last February at the Matunga Gymkhana – 6 Red Open Snooker Shootout Tournament he finished among the top 16 of the 127 participants.
A commercial pilot, 45-year-old Rohinton Daruwalla has been playing since the age of 16, earlier practicing at the P. J. Hindu Gymkhana and now at the DPCG. An investor relations professional at Tata Consumer Products, 34-year-old Olia has been practicing at the DPCG since the age of 16 encouraged by the veterans in this sport. Primarily an athlete, observing the seniors Vasania too was inspired to play for recreation.
While the DPCG teams have won the team championships at the All Parsees Billiards and Snooker Tournaments held under the auspices of the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations for Welfare and Culture for several years, those tournaments have now been discontinued for over five years, mentioned Khushroo.