By Anand Philar, IANS,
Bangalore : Indian eyes will be firmly on Pankaj Advani, who will be bidding to win his second title in the IBSF World snooker championship commencing at the beautifully-appointed Karnataka State Billiards Association hall here Monday.
The 26-year old Advani, who won the crown in 2003 in China, though has not exactly set the green baize alight with his snooker performances and has had a rather undistinguished year by his lofty standards.
The Bangalorean was sixth at the Chennai Nationals a few months back after reaching the semifinals of the Asian championship in Indore while in billiards he has had better success as he won the National title besides being runner-up in IBSF World championship (points format) and a semifinal spot in the professional World championship.
“Obviously, it is great to be playing at home. I was just two years old when Bangalore last hosted this tournament in 1987 and I am looking forward to playing in front of my home crowd. KSBA has the best cue sport facilities in India,” he said in a chat with IANS.
Advani is only too aware of the strength and depth of the 86-player field that has been divided into 16 groups for the preliminary league. The top three from each group will qualify for the knock-out stage where 16 top ranked players will receive a bye into round of 32. They will be joined by the 16 winners of the first round of the knock-out competition.
The draw includes Thailand’s Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, the 2008 champion, but Advani asserted that track record was of little relevance or significance.
“The championship is very open and it does not matter if you have won the title in the past,” said Advani, finalist last year, as he pointed out that the knock-out stage would be crucial since, unlike in the league, there will be no safety net to arrest a fall.
“I am aware of public expectations, but I am quite used to it and also the pressure. I hope to feed on this energy to my advantage,” said Advani.
While Advani obviously spearheads Indian challenge, a couple of other Indians too have a realistic chance of progressing all the way. The likes of Manan Chandra, veteran Alok Kumar, Kamal Chawla, a quarter-finalist at the 2009 event in Hyderabad, and home grown talent IH Manudev have the potential to beat the best in the business, and have done so on their day.
Among the foreign entries, Australia’s Steve Mifsud, the 2002 champion, besides those from the British isles have the capacity to spring a surprise or two like Welshman Darren Morgan did back in 1987 when as a relatively unknown player went on to win the championship.
Traditionally, England (9 titles), Wales (8) and Thailand (7) have dominated the championship since its inception in 1963 when Kolkata hosted the inaugural event. Yet, the last time a player won back-to-back titles was in 1986 when the great Maltese marksman Paul Mifsud potted his second. Since then, no player has won the title twice.
Conspicuous by their absence are entries from Asian powerhouse China, who have indicated their inability to field players due to budgetary constraints. Also skipping the event is Qatar, whose two players pulled out due to visa problems while their spots have been allotted to India’s Brijesh Damani and Balaji Reddy.
The KSBA has laid out 16 tables for the competition that will be played on best of seven frames up to round of 32 and then best of nine, 11 (quarterfinals), 13 (semifinals) and 19 (final).
(Anand Philar can be contacted at [email protected])