A gentleman champion

Pankaj Advani

There is a distinct aura of authority when Pankaj Advani walks into the room. What he lacks in height, he makes up in stature. Pankaj, the undisputed king of cue-sport in India currently (read that as the entire last decade) commands respect and instils fear at the same time, as one reads his name in any tournament draw. The questions that envelope the minds of all other participants are, "Am I in the same half of the draw as him? Who is going to meet him in the final?" It's a given that Pankaj will make it to the last day, barring an unusual off day, where he probably himself gets bored of making the effort to win. Such is the impact this man has left on the minds of all other cueists in India.

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That Jammu final

It all began in 2001-02 at the Jammu Nationals. Pankaj, the upstart, had somehow made it to the final. His opponent - the very much in form Yasin Merchant. To be honest, I had not given him too much of a chance to put it across me, for I had beaten him in a couple of earlier events, and pretty convincingly too. But this time was different. There was an extra spring in his step. He was hunting for his first title, and I was trying to keep him at bay. He raced to an early lead and all of a sudden, the pressure was on me. Hang on, I did, but barring a few frames to recover lost pride, I could not prevent Pankaj from bagging his first National title that year. He had arrived! We did have many battles later on where we shared wins and losses, but the Jammu defeat did hurt a bit.

There was no looking back and he has gone on to become the most successful amateur not only in India, but in the world. His records are seemingly unassailable, and the hunger just does not die! Pankaj has now graduated from becoming India's most celebrated player to a study in how to attain unparalleled success and still be hungry for more. His calm demeanour on and off the table is an education for aspiring champions. His will to excel, and unrelenting desire to survive needs to be explored by psychologists. The ability to switch seamlessly from billiards to snooker and excel in both is awe-inspiring. He would wear the tag of ‘Cue-sport Marvel' exceedingly well.

Built for glory

I have known him since he was an aspiring junior trying to get his foot in the door, to make a mark at the senior level. There was a lot of early interaction between his mother and myself regarding his career, where I only requested her to keep him grounded, for he was built for boundless glory and it would be easy to get sucked into the trappings of fame and glamour. To her credit, and to his of course, he has stayed humble and sociable all his life, earning him thousands of fans across the world. He may not appear to be a perfect specimen of cue-manship when he is on the table, but he surely is a perfect model of how and what a champion should be.
Having broken every record possible on the amateur circuit (national and international), Pankaj walks tall even now, his hunting antenna forever scouting the next possible achievement. His is a name that continues to inspire both friends and foes, and will leave very big boots to fill, if and when he decides to hang up his cue.

Yasin Merchant is an Asian Games doubles gold-medal winning snooker exponent