Muruvanda C. Uthappa has been elected as the President of Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI) in the Annual General Body Meeting held at the Karnataka State Billiards Association.

The new office bearers for the term 2019-23 are President – M.C. Uthappa, Vice-Presidents – Sunil Bajaj, Soumini Srinivas, Vijay Goel and Pradip Saraogi. Devendra Joshi was elected as Hon. Secretary while H.R. Rathan Kumar will be the Treasurer.

The BSFI was founded in 1926 and is affiliated to the World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS), the International Billiards and Snooker Federation, the Asian Confederation of Billiards Sports, the Asian Pocket Billiard Union, and the Asian Carom Billiard Confederation. It is also recognised by the Indian Olympic Association.

Muruvanda Uthappa (Vasu) hails from Kolthodu village in South Kodagu and is a businessman in Bengaluru. He has been the member of the Billiards Association since the last 40 years and has an innate knowledge and experience in the game. He has been the office-bearer of Karnataka State Billiards Association since the last 20 years and has worked under various capacities as Treasurer, Secretary and Vice-President.

Uthappa has been with the National Billiards Association since the last four years. It governs all the State Billiards Associations and the National Association comes under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. The Association has been promoting the game nationally and internationally and has the objective of identifying and nurturing new talents.

Speaking to Star of Mysore, Uthappa said that the National Billiards Association has been doing a lot of good work and he has the job of continuing the good work as its President.

“I would want to encourage talent right from the district level and the game has a huge scope. It is the highest medal-winning game for India and the country has won more than 200 medals in various Championships with star players like Pankaj Advani,” he said.

“The National Association has been conducting a host of national and international Championships since the last five years and the last tourney had a total viewership of 55 million people in India,” he added.

Uthappa is born to Muruvanda Chengappa and Pali Chengappa. He is married to Shashi and his son Pruthvi Uthappa assists him in business while daughter Divya Uthappa is a professional.