World number six Eklent Kaci has called for any player caught cheating to be banned for a long time after the cue ball behaved in a strange fashion at the World Pool Championship.
Kaci, who was beaten in the final in Saudi Arabia last time around at the hands of world number one Fedor Gorst, exited the tournament in the last 32 at the hands of world number 61 Patric Gonzales.
Gonzales was amongst seven Filipino players to book their places into the World Championship last 16, joining the likes of Carlo Biado, Anton Raga, Jefrey Roda and James Aranas at the business end.
However, Albania’s Kaci raised his concerns via social media following his abrupt exit and fuelled the strong rumours that certain Filipino players have been waxing the cue ball in some manner.
“I lost in the last 32 against one of the 30 Filipinos in the tournament,” Kaci began. “[There was a] weird cue ball, it was all over the place.
“I think the cue ball was waxed real bad, and I think whoever gets caught doing it should get banned for enough time for their gloves, towel and whatever to get real dry.”
Kaci later added: “I’m not complaining because I lost. It’s not my first time and it’s not going to be my last time losing that’s for sure.
“My mind says that the cue ball was playing different, compared to my previous three matches, where the start of the match plays just fine, and then mid-match until the end tables and balls play tougher and tougher.
“Last match I had too many over-draw shots, playing a safe shot, aiming half of the ball with english, and didn’t even hit the ball, missed lots of shots by a mile where english was needed, out of position totally sometimes.
“Even if nothing wrong was with that cue ball, I still think that the authorities in charge about this stuff should take this seriously. It has happened many times in many tournaments, where lots of players have complained about it and no one has gotten punished. It will keep happening from one or another.”
Kaci’s concerns come following the cue ball behaving oddly in Jeffrey Ignacio’s 11-10 win over Aloysius Yapp, with world number two Yapp putting ‘wax on, wax off’ on his Instagram story post-match.
Yapp has since apologised for that quip and who it may have affected. But he also said: “We players are letting the relevant authorities handle it now. Whatever the verdict may be, we players we accept it.”
Yapp added: “It’s basically impossible for a cue ball to be slicker at the end than at the start after 21 racks of play, with the refs sweaty palms and humidity in the room too.”
Last year’s runner-up Eklent Kaci has raised cheating concerns following his World Pool Championship exit (Photo: Taka Wu)
absolute-pool.com