Michael Ferreira Biography

Michael Ferreira is the Indian billiards player or known by name ” Bombay Tiger”, has four World Billiards Championship titles to his credit.

Michael Ferreira was born on October 1, 1938. He participated in the National Billiards Championship in 1960 for the first time in 1964 he represented India in the World Amateur Billiards Championship held in New Zealand . In 1977 he won his first World Amateur Billiards Championship title at Christchurch, New Zealand. In the same year he won the World Open Billiards Championship title at Christchurch. He has two more World Billiard Championship titles under his belt. In 1978 he became the first amateur to break the world record of 1000 points in the billiards national championships and created a new one by scoring 1149 points. His accomplishments in the 1970s and 1980s and the many world titles he won gave a boost to billiards in India and encouraged many youngsters to take to this sport.

Michael Ferreira had been fighting for equal treatment in sports in India. He refused to accept the 1981 Padma Shri award to protest against the prevalent practice in India of giving cricket prominence over other sports. He voiced his opinion that his feats in billiards were not in any way less than Sunil Gavaskar and he was as much suitable as Gavaskar to receive the more honourable award, the Padma Bhusan.