I feel as young as 25, always consider myself a player keen to improve
The winner of 27 World titles says he would like to see himself as a versatile cueist; eager to carry on playing, the 38-year-old feels a cue sports league in India will go a long way in boosting the sport and producing the champions of the future
Monday, April 1, 2024
Pankaj Advani, India’s supreme master of the green baize sport has completed 25 years in competitions. The 38yearold has demonstrated unwavering resolve to pursue excellence in a sport that has a fantastic legacy in India. He has won 27 World crowns (19 in billiards and 8 in snooker), something that is nonpareil in the country’s sporting history.
Advani has loved billiards and snooker equally though he has more achievements in the former. According to him, billiards is more creative while snooker is all about that one shot.
In a freewheeling interview on the sidelines of the Cricket Club of India (CCI) Billiards Classic 2024, the Indian sporting icon spoke about this journey, professional dreams and the way forward for the sport in the country. Excerpts:
Q. From the Pot Shot tournament win in 1999 to the present one at the CCI in 2024, it is a good 25 years in competitions. Probably, you may carry on for another 30 years...
A. Thirty years! I don’t know. But I wouldn’t change much in my career. I mean, spanning over the last 25 years and, hopefully, a lot more. But 1999 was a special year for me as I won my first National junior billiards title in Bangalore. And around that time, I think I won the Pot Shot All India snooker championship.
There is a funny story because there were two categories of the Pot Shot events. One was the nonmedallist, and the other was the medallist. So I went for the nonmedallist first. I was about to lose to a good friend of mine (Naveen from Karnataka State Billiards Association).
He was quite seasoned and I was about to fall to him in the quarterfinals. Somehow he slipped towards the end and I won the match 32. Thereafter, I went on to win the nonmedallist championship.
I remember I was in the ninth standard then. I had Maths and Hindi tuitions as well as exams. Since I won the nonmedallist event, the players told me ‘why don’t you spend your energy in the medallist tournament and give it a shot.’ I was going to compete with better players like Rafath Habib, K. Ranjan, Antim Singhi, and all the top players from Tamil Nadu as well as Karnataka.
I was very tempted. I was on a high also. But I also had my academics to take care of. So I asked my mother to let me play in the medallist, saying that upon losing I would take the next bus or train and come home. I gave the entry, hit a purple patch and everything started.
As a youngster, when you are fearless, you have nothing to lose. And I went on to beat Antim Singhi, managed to win 54 against Rafath while eating chocolates and sipping on Coke. And finally I went on to win the tournament beating the then State champion, Ranjan.
I think this win marked my arrival on the National scene and the seniors had to take me seriously, not just as a junior or as a nonmedallist player. So those were very special moments for me in my career. And that boosted my confidence immensely to graduate to the senior level at a very young age.
Has it sunk in that 25 lovely years have gone by?
I feel as young as 25, honestly. I always consider myself a young player keen to learn and improve. It has not sunk in. If somebody told me that I have played for 25 years, I would say I probably lived for 25 years here, although I am much older than that.
That is the beauty of the journey that comprises all those moments wherein I have played some tough matches, endured tense moments and experienced some great triumphs, heartbreaking losses and struggles in terms of support. I lost my father at a very early age. I have seen it all. I think it has been a wonderful journey and I feel like I am far from done.
So in 25 years 27 World titles with 19 in billiards and 8 in snooker. Did the thought occur anytime to drop either one of them?
When I grew up, I idolised players like
Geet Sethi, Yasin Merchant, Michael Ferreira and, of course, my coach, Arvind Savur for whom I have immense respect. When I won my first World title in 2003 in China, I was a novice in the game. I beat Pakistan’s Saleem Mohammed.
When it sank in that I had won the World championship and given the magnitude of the achievement, I told my coach that I wanted to excel in billiards.
Arvind uncle laughed and brushed it aside saying, ‘listen, don’t be silly, don’t be a hero, just concentrate on snooker, you are doing well.’ He asked me to go to England, something that I was keen to do also.
My technique was very unconventional, it still is. It was unorthodox, nothing that the textbooks would recommend for a cueist. So, let alone specialising in two sports, even the fact that I did not have a proper textbook technique made me feel like I was not going to be able to do it.
It was discouraging for a while, but then I made up my mind and said, ‘No, I want to redefine the word specialisation. Why should specialisation be restricted only to one cue sport?’ Every player in the country, and I can say this with authority now, being at that stage in my career, has only specialised either in billiards or snooker. Their achievements have been lopsided, although they have tried playing both.
But I said why couldn’t I specialise in both? I came up with a unique technique, one for billiards and a completely different one for snooker. I realised that snooker was a game that required you to play more of the centre ball and bottom, and that billiards needed you to play higher.
Here I am today because I believed that I could excel in both. Not that I knew I had the talent, but I had this belief in my mind that I wanted to do something different.
Why do we have to restrict ourselves? I mean the scientists, athletes and experts said that the mile could not be completed in under four minutes until Roger Bannister did it because he believed in it. And that’s how I would like to see myself — a versatile cueist.
Did you have a role model?
When we talk about billiards, Geet Sethi was the biggest name; in snooker, it was Yasin Merchant. Then there were Alok Kumar, Devendra
Joshi and Ashok Shandilya. All of them were my idols. I learnt something from each of them.
Would you agree that the four — Wilson Jones, Michael Ferreira, Sethi and you — are the billiards titans of India?
Every era has somebody who tries to push the boundaries and limits. I am glad that I am in that category. Jones, Ferreira and Sethi paved the way for us. I am sure the young players — S. Shrikrishna, Dhwaj Haria, Ishpreet Singh Chadha and Sparsh Pherwani — will come up with something different from what we have done.
Yasin, Aditya Mehta and then you spent time in professional snooker. Ishpreet is having a go at it now. How do you see it?
Some amazing players are super consistent in professional snooker. I think there is no dearth of talent in India, but it is just the culture in the UK; it’s in their blood. The circuit is so vibrant because you have so much to look forward to.
If you become a professional, and if you do well, it’s not easy. But if you start doing well, you are making decent money. Of course, if you are in the top16, you are settled and established, but not everybody has the capability or the skill to reach that level.
If you see the snooker circuit in the UK over the last 30 to 40 years, you will have maybe one Ding ( Junhui), one James Wattana, one Marco Fu, throw in an odd Chinese, a Neil Robertson, and then I almost lost for a sixth name from outside the UK. So it is heavily dominated by the UK and, of course, they have great players.
A professional league in India in cue sports is long overdue, is it not?
Somebody has to do that because there is so much talent. I have been saying this for the past 57 years.
A league is the need of the hour. Televise it, pay the players reasonably well, and put it out there because the sport is not out there and it can only be made more visible through platforms like television where it’s consumed by people outside our fraternity and by those who do not fully understand the sport. Tweak the rules a bit like kabaddi did... I am sure something can be worked out in billiards and snooker too.
Can the league be player driven?
I think this is a question the federation has to answer. I am not equipped to. There is talent in both formats. It (a playerdriven league) can be done, but again it requires everybody to come together.
There are so many priorities and it becomes difficult to join hands and resources. All of us are from different cities as well, so I don’t see how that’s going to happen soon.
But coming back to the league, we have to move with the times. I do not want to make a controversial statement, but I do feel that the policies are heavily in favour of the Asian Games and the Olympics.
While I understand why those are very important in the context of Indian sports, I do not think they should be the only yardstick to measure sporting success and excellence.
Cue sport will return at the Doha Asian Games in 2030 after missing four editions from 2014 to 2026. Should the long gap be seen as a setback?
It should be. It is not that I rate the Asian Games any lesser than a World championship or a major tournament. But at the same time, it comes only once in four years.
From this point of view, not getting support from the government, corporates, or maybe even for the game’s visibility is a big setback. Not being in the Asian Games from 2014 until now is not good.
We are going to be back in the mix after 20 years. A lot of effort was made to get it at the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya ( Japan). Many people from the fraternity got together and made a strong case and lobbied, but it didn’t happen.
India’s preparation has to start now for 2030. It all depends on how the federation makes a representation to the ministry.
The funding needs to be received now in order to send our players abroad, train them, equip them, prepare them, and eventually get them into competitive shape.