Briliance,
Inteligence and capacity to tackle the
situations are tested when a person
enters in a non traditional field for
him. People of Sindhi community have
proved from time to time that they are
not only king of business field but
also of the various others as proved
by
Prem Ramchandani [Defense
Service],
Ram Jethmalani &
L K Advani [Politics],
Narendra Hirwani - the world
Record creator Cricketer,
Rajkumar Hirani [Performing
Arts]. This time it was proved by teen
age Pankaj Advani, though a very very
few Sindhis get diverted from their
traditional field of business, but
whenever they do so , no obstacle is
enough of preventing them from
reaching the highest peak of the
field. Pankaj was born on 24 th
July 1985 in Pune in Maharashtra.
In Marathi a Saying goes like "
Murti Lahan Kirti Mahan" which
means the Name or appearance is not so
big but the fame is beyond the
comparison and Pankaj is living
example for it. He bagged three World
Titles before completing the teen age,
the importance of his fate become more
significant as he reached the
destination by defeating seven time
Billiard World Champion Legendary Geet
Sethi.
Soon after the birth of
Pankaj the Advani family shifted to
Kuwait, but the early death of his
father forced the family to come back
to India in 1990. Family was settled
in the Garden City Bangalore,
Where the schooling [Frank Anthony
School] and college education of
Pankaj was in progress when he
crowned as the World Champion. Former
National Snooker Champion Arvind
Savur saw him in 1995 at Karnataka
State Billiards Hall Bangalore, Where
he was present with elder brother
Shree. Sensing the talent of Pankaj,
Arvind started guiding & coaching
him the basics of the game though at
that time Pankaj was so young that he
was not reaching the table height. It
was Pankaj's extra ordinary talent and
guidance of Arvind that before
celebrating the 14 th birthday, Pankaj
become capable of posting century
breaks.
In
the year 2003 at the tender age of 18
Pankaj was crowned as World Snooker
Champion. In 2005 When he defeated
legendary Geet Sethi, the reaction of
former champion was " Advani become
the undisputed Prince of World of
Billiards. He has already collected
three World Titles and is not yet of
20. One Wonders how many World titles
he will end up with, in a sport which
allow a player to be at one's
competitive best for at least two
decades."
The traditional quality of sindhi
community of keeping the calm in the
disasters has helped a lot to Pankaj
specially in the matches he won by
overcoming the trailing situation.
Keep your all the good wishes reserved
for him and pray the Waheguru to bless
him so he become capable of bringing
more and more pride for community and
Mother India.
Some of earlier achievement
of Pankaj Advani, year by year are
listed below :
1997
27th BS Sampath Memorial Handicap
Snooker Championship
T.A. Selvaraj Memorial Billiards
Championship
Karnataka Stage Junior Snooker
Championship
1998
Karnataka State Junior Snooker
Championship
1999
Pot Shot All India Triangular
Championship
Pot Shot non-medallist Championship
2000
Indian Junior Billiards Championship
2003
IBSF World Snooker Championship
Indian Junior Billiards Championship
Indian Junior Snooker Championship
2005
World Billiards Championship
2006
Gold Medal Ashiada At Doha
2008
IBSF World Billiard Championship
[Point Format] by defeating legendary
Geet Sethi at Bangalore
Rajeev Gandhi
Khel Ratana : The
highest sport award of India for the
year 2005 was awarded to Pankaj. He
was nominated for the award along with
cricket player Rahul Dravid and
Tennis player Mahesh Bhupati.
After the Abhinav Bindra [Age
:20 years], Pankaj Advani [Age : 21
years] is the second youngest
player to be honored with this
prestigious award. On 29-08-2006
President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
felicitated him and handed over the
award.