World under Pankaj’s feet

The 33-year-old dispelled doubts whether he could go on playing like this because there was virtually nothing left to be conquered. “I am in cue sport because of the pure joy of playing the game. I am not looking at numbers. To me sport is an art and I enjoy as long as I look at ways of excelling in it,” said Pankaj Advani, who is in the city to play in the National 6-Red Snooker Championship.

Last month, the ace Indian cueist added two titles to the 16 he already had when he routed Mike Russell of England in the World Billiards Championship in Doha in the 150-point format. Within a couple of weeks, at the same venue, he won the World Snooker Championship too beating Amir Sarkhosh of Iran. 

“Though the first title (2003) was good as I bounced back well. But the last two at Doha were tough because I had to shift the format within a few days and it was non-stop cue sport for almost three weeks,” he summed up the difficult task of playing billiards and snooker, one after the other. 

Advani had a word of praise for Chennai’s teen talent Suryanarayanan Shrikrishna. “He has won everything at the junior level. He would go places. My advice to him is you should be passionate about the game and never give it up. The rewards will certainly come,” said the Padma Shri awardee. Pankaj said he was not too much bothered about the maximum break (147) that was missing in his collection. “For the record, that is not the only one missing in the last, I don’t have a 1000-break in billiards as well.” 

The multi-time national champion said he did not want to comment on the question of billiards dying a slow death, dismissing it as a concern for the World federation to address. “I enjoy playing all formats. Between the traditional snooker and the 6-Red, I prefer the shorter format because it is great on television,” he explained. 

But, he did not want to pick either billiards or snooker as his favourite because, he did not like anything that took him away from one sport in favour of the other. 

Pankaj clarified he did not like playing the professional snooker in England, though it was attractive from the monetary angle. “I played two seasons in 2012 and 2013, then I got bored. You should not do anything just for the sake of money,” he reasoned. 

He believes physical training is important is any sport and cue sport is not an exception. “ If you look at a mental game like chess, physical training is essential. In billiards and snooker, you need to stand for long hours and move your body constantly. I hit the gym thrice or four times a week when I am not deep into any tournament,” signed off the master of the green baize.