21/10/2026
43. M.J.M. Lafir 🇱🇰 became Sri Lanka's First World Champion. Long before Sri Lanka lifted a Cricket World Cup, before stadiums roared and TV cameras flashed, a quiet man from Colombo made history on green baize.
In December 1973, at the Cricket Club of India in Bombay, Muhammed Junaid Mohamed Lafir (M.J.M. Lafir) was crowned World Amateur Billiards Champion. He didn't just win. He conquered.
He went unbeaten through the entire tournament, winning all nine matches against the best in the world — Clive Everton of Wales, Michael Ferreira of India, Lu Demarco, Alfred Nolan, Eric Simmons, Brian Kirkness, Phil Tarrant and Paul Mifsud.
He reached the final, where he defeated India's Satish Mohan.
Lafir was the first Sri Lankan to ever win a billiards world championship, and remains the only Sri Lankan to have done so. It was the first time a Sri Lankan had won a world championship title in any form of sports competition.
He learned the game on his family dining table at age 12. While his cue was a broomstick, his balls were marbles and his cushions were cycle tubes. His cloth was his mother's sarong. With his father, Mohamed Junaid as his first coach, by 19, he was national snooker champion. In the years that followed, he would win the National Snooker Championship 17 times and the National Billiards Championship 16 times — records no Sri Lankan or Indian has been able to break to this day. 8769
He chased the world title for years. Runner-up in London in 1969. Third place in 1968. Fourth in Malta in 1971. Failure to qualify in Auckland in 1972. Each defeat was a lesson and then 1973 was his destiny.
For 21 days in Bombay, he was untouchable. In a match against New Zealand's Eric Simmons, he created a world record for the highest break in a single set — 859 points, made in just 49 minutes and 47 seconds. As Snooker Scene Editor Clive Everton wrote: it was an achievement without parallel in the annals of sports in Sri Lanka.
He beat the more fancied Indian champions Michael Ferreira and Satish Mohan in their own backyard.
After winning, offers poured in. Property. Cars. Citizenship and contracts from foreign countries to turn professional.
Lafir turned them all down. He remained a true Sri Lankan, returning to work as an executive for the Sri Lanka Transport Board.
"Many used me, and if it had not been for my faith in God and my resolve to win, I would not have come so far," he confided in his last media interview in 1981.
After his first world-class win over South Africa's Mannie Francisco in 1967, he had shouted simply: "Allah" and thanked Him.
He passed away on April 26, 1981, aged just 51.
Messenger Street in Colombo 12, where he lived, was renamed M.J.M. Lafir Mawatha. A postage stamp was issued in his honour. Today, the Asian Snooker champion receives the MJM Lafir Challenge Trophy.
