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 Billiards
& Snooker: Teen Age Sindhi World Champion : PANKAJ
ADVANI
Brilliance, Intelligence 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 masters of the various
other walks of human life 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 Bangalore's Karnataka State Billiards
Hall, 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." He is the only one in the world
to win twin titles (point and time formats) at the IBSF
world billiards championships, not once but twice.
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
Championship titles 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
2009 : Professional World Billiard Championship [ Only
second Indian player after Geet Sethi]
2010 : Asian Games Gold Medal
2011 : Semi Final Stage of World Billiard Championship
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. |