In a cricket-crazy nation like ours, one could be forgotten for thinking that other sports do not matter. While that thinking is beginning to change, many sportspersons who are doing India proud in other disciplines. Some have been given their due credit, others are more often than not on the sidelines, but are champions in their own right.
One such person is Pankaj Advani. The man has for over the past decade done India proud in billiards and snooker and despite all the success he has achieved, the man is barely known in his own country. Ironically, he is more famous abroad and that is not something we should be proud of. While he has not completely faded into oblivion, he is not hailed at the same level as a Virat Kohli or Sachin Tendulkar. But his contribution is no less.
Pankaj was born in Pune but spent some of his early years in Kuwait before moving to Bangaluru. The knack towards snooker came when he was 10 and the first title followed when he was 12. In 2000 he won his first Indian Junior Billiards Championship title and he won it again in 2001 and 2003. 2003 saw him win the India Junior Snooker Championship and this made him the youngest ever to do so.
His entry into the international circuit saw him finish as finalist in the 2002 Asian Billiards Championship. He won the amateur World Snooker Champion title in 2003 and followed it up with the World Billiards Championship. From then on there was no looking back.
The man has won 23 World Championship titles and also a couple of Asian Games golds in 2006 and 2010. By now he is pretty much ruling the roost on the table so to speak and yet when we take the name of out top sportspersons his name is sort of on the sidelines.
Pankaj has achieved much more than many names which are taken in high regard and he is no less than a legend in the sport. A modern great who is doing India proud in two separate disciplines even though they are pretty similar.
By the time he hangs up his stick so to speak, he will have left a legacy that is second to none. He is still going strong, a fighter to the core, doing India proud at every turn. The least we can do is lend our support.