Epitaph to a snooker great who emulated MICH legend Lafir
Raibin with snooker legend Jimmy White
“Perseverance has its rewards. Your dedication to the game you so much love has its upsets in the past. So it was to be in the game last week. It was a battle of swinging fortune. Yet you were not un-nerved. With the skill of a Champion you potted the vital pink ball in the 15th and last frame, to beat a more experienced opponent and to enter the Hall of fame in the company of the memorable M.J.M. Lafir, the World Champion.”
This tribute from MICH (Moors Islamic Cultural Home) to Mohamed Hassim Raibin in 1989 after he won his maiden national snooker title defeating a five-time winner Henry Boteju in a pulsating final, should remain as the greatest epitaph to one of the finest wizards to dazzle on the green baize.
Having fallen in love with the cue game at the age of eight, Raibin dedicated his life as a player and coach until he breathed his last a week ago, after collapsing suddenly at his home but still smiling perhaps reminiscing the next move on the table even as he lay motionless before going to his final rest. A diminutive man who distinguished himself with a well-groomed beard, Raibin was a gentle giant who wielded the cue with gay abandon. Like his great nemesis ‘King Henry’ who pre-deceased him, Raibin was a flamboyant yet master tactician who believed in the adage ‘attack is the best form of defence’. It may not have earned him the laurels he deserved but his artistry with the cue in hand was a delight for connoisseurs of the sport.
Billiards was his first love but the coloured-balls games of snooker brought him more success after he started playing cue games on a quarter-size table owned by Cyril Jayasinghe of Piachaud’s Lane, Maradana near his residence. Then he graduated to a three-quarter size table at Sunrise Sports Club, Maradana where he played soccer as well. It was a friend M. Rizvi who persuaded him to launch a big-time cue career by playing on a full-size table at MICH in 1975 where he practiced with the legend himself Lafir.
Runner-up in Lanka Plate snooker, he was a member of the MICH team that won the All Island Inter-Club Championship. In 1977 he won the Lanka Plate title and came up to the semifinals in the Nationals (top break of 42) and won the Colombo District Lanka Plate billiards in 1981 and won his first major snooker title – the inaugural M.J.M. Lafir memorial trophy in 1982 and the Lanka Plate billiards title the following year.
He first represented Sri Lanka at the BEL Officer’s Club tournament in Bangalore in 1983 and was a member of the team which participated in the International Snooker League in Chicago (1985) where they emerged runners-up, and in London (1986). Quarter-finalist at the 3rd Asian Snooker Championships (1986) in Colombo where Tournament Director Peter Watson was impressed with Raibin’s “smooth stroke making”, two years later he scored a sensational win over Australian Ron Atkins, runner-up to Jimmy White at the World Amateur Snooker Championship in 1980, in the 5th Asian snooker event also in Colombo. These were some of the high points in his career as a player which saw him notch a record break of 108 in a tournament in 1986 before achieving his cherished milestone of being crowned national snooker championship emulating the feat of Lafir in 1989.
Thereafter he embarked on a coaching career beginning with Sri Lanka for the World Snooker Championships in 1990 followed by a brief stint as UAE’s junior national coach before enjoying a successful stint as senior coach of Brunei for over a decade from 1995.
His family and friends paid glowing and emotional tributes to a humble, kind and caring person who gave a helping hand to many youngsters to shine in the cue sport.
Raibin with the Brunei Crown Prince
“He is everything for me. Mentor, friend, leader, coach. He has always been a humble person. He dedicated his life to family, Brunei and of course Sri Lanka. All his fame is because of billiards and snooker,” his eldest son Mushtaq recalled fondly.
“He was always into coaching. Coaching and assisting the Brunei Crown Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah ibni Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, was an honour for him. He always talked about how lucky he was to have served the government of Brunei about it which was his second home,” he said.
A semifinalist at the Nationals before being lost to the sport as he focused on education, Mushtaq related how Raibin sought perfection.
“I used to help him out with fixing tables because table is a place where he wants perfection. He doesn’t want the ball to swing here and there. He used to spend endless amount of time fixing it just like he has dedicated his life for snooker and for us,” he said.
“Winning the Borneo championship and the Gulf Cup were the high points in his coaching career. But above all, he instilled technical skills, how to approach the table, how to build breaks, etc., than just winning. Top juniors in his time like Susantha Boteju, Indika Dodangoda and M.S.M. Nauffer were groomed by him,” added Mushtaq.
Shafeek Rajabdeen, the immediate past president of BSASL, said: “He was one of the pillars of billiards and snooker in the country. He was a good friend of mine. He invited me to become president (of the Billiards and Snooker Association of Sri Lanka). He was one of my strongest guys. He was our national coach. He was my treasurer. He was my guru.”
It was Rajabdeen who encouraged Raibin to accept the offer to coach in Brunei.
“That time he had lost his daughter. I said ‘don’t worry you have got a good opening’. And he went and stayed in Brunei for a number of years. His trip to Brunei made a big change for his family and he continued to be in the game,” related Rajabdeen.
“He was always in touch. We got him back. He has the knack and knows the talent. He is one of the best players Sri Lanka ever had. And he has the soft touch,” he said.
May the turf lie gently over him.