History & trivia
Carrom is such a simple and straightforward sort of game that it's impossible to think of a time and place when people didn't play something like it. Little is know of its history and plenty can be conjectured. Some say the word derives from an Indonesian fruit, there is certainly a town called carrom in India (I've seen it on the map!) and the similarity to "carambola" in biliards cannot be denied. Still, not much more can be supposed about carrom's past that hasn't already been supposed by somebody else on the internet so here are some straight facts about more recent carrom history.
India is the country with most carrom players and it is where carrom'srecent history begins:
In 1956 the first official carrom organization was founded, The All India Carrom Federation, with the first written rules. In the years that followed national federations and associations were formed in many Asian countries and inter-Asian championships were held throughout the 1960's.
In the year 1970 the leadership of the All India Carrom Federation fell to Mr Bangaru B. Babu, of Chennai. He was the first person to have a truly global vision of carrom and to dedicate his time to promoting the game outside Asia. Thanks to his efforts in 1988 rappresentatives of several countries from nearly all continents set up the International Carrom Federation and set down an International Standard for carrom.
Switzerland and Germany were amongst the first countries to respond with enthusiasm to Babu's call. Throughout the eighties there were many international tournaments and test matches and the first inter- continental tournament took place in Zurich in 1985. For nearly 10 years the President of the ICF was Martin Meier of Switzerland who together with Bangaru Babu tried his best to spread carrom further afield with the aim of finding a place for carrom amongst the Olympic Games. Today the president of the ICF is Krishan Sharma of the UK and if his success in his first year of office are anything to go by, the ICF will go a long way under his rule.For the first time there is also an Italian on the ICF Board of Management, Elisa Zucchiatti, who was nominated one of the vice-presidents in London in 1997. Elisa, together with her European associates, also founded the European Carrom Confederation with the aim of assuring, among other things, that a European Cup be held every year in rotation among the member nations. In 1997 the first Eurocup was held in Luton, in 98 in Berlin, in 99 in Switzerland, in 2000 in Italy and 2001 France.
At present the member nations of the International Carrom Federation are: Australia; Bahrein; Bangladesh; Germany Great Britain; India; Italia; Malaysia; Maldive; New Zealand; France; Portugal; Singapore; Sri Lanka; United States; Japan and Switzerland.
The last (3rd) edition of the World Championships was held in 2000 in New Delhi. The next one should be held in 2004 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
News & Trivia
Carrom Association Worldwide
Photos of FIC events
autori: claudia gianfriglia & elisa zucchiatti
realizzazione a cura della F.I.C.
info@carromitaly.com
