Pétanque in Mauritius

Mauritius fields one of the Indian Ocean's most established pétanque scenes, built on a national federation more than four decades old. The island won the World Championship's Nations Cup in 2024, produced a world precision-shooting medalist in Parvez Khodabaccus, and in 2026 hosted the inaugural Zone 4 African Championship for the Indian Ocean sub-region.

History

Organized pétanque on the island dates to 1982, when the Association de Pétanque de l'Île Maurice (APIM) was founded by Hans Gunness and Mme Tanguy Chettiar to bring formal structure to what had until then been informal neighborhood tournaments. The national federation, today known as the Fédération de Boules de Maurice, is headquartered at Stade George V in Forest Side and led by president Radhakrishansingh Rajkoomar; it joined the FIPJP in 1989 and now oversees between 1,100 and 1,200 licensed players. Mauritius holds an unusual dual confederation status: it was a founding member of the Asian Petanque and Sports Boules Confederation (APSBC) when that body formed in 1997 alongside Cambodia, Israel, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Seychelles, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, while also competing today through the African Confederation of Boules Sports (CASB), whose roughly two dozen members include most of Mauritius's Indian Ocean and African rivals. That confederation's structure has been disputed since January 2025, when a faction of federations met at a rival Dakar congress - convened, per CASB's own arbitration filing, at FIPJP's instigation - to establish the Confédération Africaine de Sport Pétanque (CASP) as a parallel body; a May 21, 2026 Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling annulled FIPJP's withdrawal of recognition from the original CASB leadership, though CASP held its own elective general assembly two days later, on 23 May 2026 in Abidjan, where Mahmoud Archane - the outgoing president of Morocco's Fédération Royale Marocaine de Pétanque - was elected CASP president unanimously as the sole candidate, receiving all 19 votes cast by the member-federation representatives present, succeeding interim president Louly Mohamed Lemine after outgoing president Brahim Darwich of Senegal resigned; CASB, meanwhile, remains under its long-serving president, Idrissou Ibrahima of Benin. The two bodies remain split as of September 2026, with no public sign of reconciliation.

World Championship: The 2024 Nations Cup

At the World Championships in Dijon, France (5-8 December 2024), the Mauritian squad of Aman Beetun, Parvez Khodabaccus, Lallchand Ramlall, and Fabrice Vincent won the Coupe des Nations (Nations Cup) - the tournament's parallel event for teams eliminated from the main Men's Triples draw - going 8-4 through the competition and beating French Polynesia's Tahiti selection in the final. In the individual precision-shooting event at the same championships, Khodabaccus reached the semifinal before losing to Hungary's László Nagy, taking the bronze medal.

Regional Success: Indian Ocean Games and Hosting Zone 4

Mauritius has also medaled at the continent's Indian Ocean multi-sport event. At the Jeux des Îles de l'Océan Indien (Indian Ocean Games) in Madagascar in 2023, Khodabaccus won gold in precision shooting, and the Mauritian doubles pair of Sunil Sumooreeah and Salim Sookharry took silver after beating a rival pair in the semifinal before losing the final to a Madagascar selection.

Mauritius also fielded a doubles pair at the 10th African Championship in Mauritania (Nouakchott, 22-28 November 2025), losing 12-7 in the group stage to Madagascar's Andry Salohy Randrianaivo and Mirija Solonantenaina Rakotoson, who went on to reach the semifinal unbeaten before losing to eventual champions Senegal.

In May 2026, Mauritius hosted the inaugural Zone 4 (Indian Ocean) African Championship, welcoming Madagascar and a Djiboutian delegation to compete across singles, doubles, triples, and precision shooting. Madagascar swept all four gold medals against combative Mauritian teams, with Mauritius qualifying for the continental Interzone stage planned for later in 2026.

The Mauritian Pétanque Scene

National championships are generally held on courts near the Quorum shopping and entertainment complex in Rose-Hill, and the federation has petitioned the Ministry of Youth and Sports for a dedicated national boulodrome to replace the makeshift arrangement. Clubs affiliated with the Fédération de Boules de Maurice compete in regular national tournaments feeding selection for the African and World Championship squads, continuing a competitive tradition that traces back to APIM's founding in 1982.

Clubs & Where to Play

Beyond the national federation itself, the best-documented individual club is the Association Pétanque Loisirs de l'île Maurice, founded in 2012 by a group of pétanque enthusiasts in Mahébourg, on the island's south-east coast, and registered as association number 12810. Led by president Marco Alphonse, the club organizes periodic tournaments and friendly gatherings on its own ground in Mahébourg to popularize the game locally and encourage family participation, and it runs a "Pétanque Vacances en Famille" program that invites petanque players from Réunion Island to combine tournament play with sightseeing around Mahébourg's historic waterfront. We could not independently verify individual club names for Mauritius's other playing centers around Rose-Hill and Curepipe beyond the federation's own aggregate "clubs affiliated" reference above; this section will be expanded if further named clubs can be confirmed from a citable source.

Federation Contact

The Fédération de Boules de Maurice (Mauritius Boules Federation) has been an FIPJP member since 1989 and is the country's officially recognized national sports federation for boules disciplines. Its registered office is at the George V Stadium in Forest Side, which the Mauritian Ministry of Youth and Sports' national-federation directory records with the fuller street address below. The FIPJP directory and the ministry listing agree exactly on the federation's telephone number, its official email address, and the name and contact line of its president.

Registered office: New George V Stadium, Louis Pasteur Street, Forest Side, Mauritius
Phone and fax: +230 670 0633
Email: petanqueilemaurice@hotmail.com; the FIPJP directory additionally routes ilemaurice@fipjp.com and mauritius@fipjp.com to the federation
President: Radhakrishansingh Rajkoomar
Correspondence: addressed to the registered office

The ministry directory also names the wider executive committee: vice-president Ahmad Peeroo Roheemun, secretary Thondrayen Sandregassin, vice-secretary Bineswarsingh Boudena, treasurer Faez Abdoolatiff, and vice-treasurer Sunil Lobin. That listing carries no publication date, so the committee's composition may have changed since it was issued. The president's name is corroborated by the FIPJP directory and by independent federation listings, but the remaining office-holders could not be confirmed against a second source. No federation website or published office hours were found.