This is one of the cheerier things to note as we survey the state of our sport at the beginning of the New Year. Remember the time when countries went their own ways as to which cue sport to play – Europe took to carom, England and the Commonwealth countries picked snooker and English billiards, and the United States and Japan gave their hearts to pool (or pocket billiards as it was called then). Today, the centrifugal forces are giving way to the contrary phenomenon: the world is converging around pool and the other cues sports are withering away like communism and socialism.

You get an idea of this convergence from the stories one picks up from talking to pool officials and players around the world. In Singapore, a top federation official told me that they have many snooker rooms in their city state, but the young people, he said, don’t want to play snooker. They prefer to play pool. In England, the cradle of snooker since time immemorial, a top Matchroom official says that snooker is dying, even though they still dutifully mount the world snooker championships, complete with tuxedos and all. At the 20th anniversary celebration of the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) in Willingen, Germany last December, a federation official told me how pool has caught on in the 34 countries constituting the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF).

Sure, the other cue sports – snooker, carom and English billiards – are still being played in international competition. But while officialdom are still tinkering with the old scoreboards, the players and fans have already voted with their feet. They have moved on to the pool halls and the bar tables.

How dramatic is the shift taking place could be seen in the 2007 World Pool Championship in Manila last November. Six continents, 50 countries, and over 292 players joined the tournament -- from the qualifiers to the main competition. As remarkable as the presence of the top-rated players was the representation of many countries that hitherto were alien to pool. The Middle East was well represented by players from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Eastern Europe fielded players from Serbia-Montenegro, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and Poland. Africa had entries from Eritrea and South Africa. 11 Asian countries were represented, of which most notable were India and China because they have been snooker nations for a long time.

And these guys can play! The time when just three or four countries were the school for the rest of the world is over. While the US, Chinese Taipei, Germany and the Philippines are still the preeminent powers, there are new insurgent states. China won the World Cup of Pool last September. Ricky Yang of Indonesia took the nine-ball gold in last December’s Southeast Asian Games, besting Filipino Lee Van Corteza in the finals. Vilmos Foldes of Hungary reached the final four in the WPC, and Daryl Peach of England took the world title.

In Germany, I also witnessed the 2007 WPA World Juniors and Girls Championships. And I must say it was fun to watch young boys and girls, 19 years and under, playing pool for glory and recognition. The quality of play was high, especially among the boys. How high was quickly shown when the new world junior champion Ko Pin Yi of Chinese Taipei won the Super Cup in Taipei in late December, besting a field of top veteran players.

What do all these signify?

I believe it shows that pool is moving into a new stage that augurs well for its future. In the past, pool could not really take off because only a small slice of the globe was playing the game. Although US network TV took interest after the release of the film The Hustler, it proved to be a non-starter because only a few eyeballs in America were watching.

Now that pool has the world as a stage, there is a global TV audience for pool to nurture and grow. Matchroom Sport started the sea-change when it televised the WPC in 1999. ESPN followed with the San Miguel Pool Tour, which did much to spread the sport in Asia. And Raya Sports here in the Philippines has weighed in by hosting the last two world 9-ball championships in Manila. Major events have sprouted in other parts of the world over the past three years.

One or two swallows, of course, do not make a summer. There’s a lot more work to be done before pool can take its place alongside tennis and golf in commanding huge global audiences and handsome sponsorships. Pool is still one tough sell to sponsors. There are still some kinks in the sport to iron out (which game to really put forward). But the sport is evolving in the right way. Promoters are getting more ambitious. And 100 million watching the WPC in Asia alone should tell us something.

Barring a global recession, I think this is the time for pool leaders to really push hard for the sport. The situation begs for a World Pool Tour -- a series of world-class pool events with good prize funds, competent staging and TV coverage. Many of the possible components of such a tour are already around for us to harness and upgrade. If the WPA or somebody not named KT will lead the way, many will follow.