The legacy of Wilson Jones

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GENERATION While Geet was hogging the headlines, a 11-year old from Bangalore won his first title in 1997, that too in the senior section! Pankaj Advani, doe-eyed and with a ready smile, lowered the age bar considerably and his local exploits soon won him the attention of the connoisseurs. Savur took the kid in his fold, taught him the finer points, polished his game and nurtured him as if he were his own son. At 17, Pankaj won the World snooker championship, the second youngest player ever to do so. However, Pankaj focused his attention on billiards and achieved a grand double in 2005 when he won the world championship in both time and points formats. In the meantime, India tasted success at the Asian level too with Yasin Merchant (1989, 2001) and Alok Kumar (2004) winning snooker titles besides Geet (1987), Ashok Shandilya (2002), Devendra Joshi (2004) and Pankaj (2005) pouching the billiards crown. The introduction of cue sport in the Asian Games in 1998, brought more success to the Indians who till date have won four gold, four silver and four bronze medals. As if not to be left behind, Indian women, mostly from Mumbai and Bangalore, made their mark at the international level. Though a National Championship exclusively for women was being held since the early 1990s, it was not until the start of the new millennium that the ladies won laurels in international arena. Anuja Thakur (2004) and Chitra Magimairaj (2005, ’06) claimed the World billiards titles to carry on the legacy of Wilson Jones in a befitting manner. Image: Defending champion Pankaj Advani in action in the 2006 Asian Games. (Photo Courtesy: Getty Images)