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  Sports   In Other sports  21 Sep 2018  Tracing Pune’s green table exploits

Tracing Pune’s green table exploits

THE ASIAN AGE.
Published : Sep 21, 2018, 1:27 am IST
Updated : Sep 21, 2018, 1:27 am IST

The city has been home to World Champion like Wilson Jones but it has been quite a while since we have witnessed something like this.

Kriesh Gurbaxani
 Kriesh Gurbaxani

There is no dearth of snooker and billiards players from Pune City and the surrounding districts. In the last 10 years there has been a massive growth and presently there are over 300 players actively playing the sport. But with the limitations Pune players have not been able to match up to the level of the Mumbai cubists.

Vignesh Sanghvi, a former Maharashtra number one junior ranked player in both snooker and billiards mentioned that there are plenty of talented players in Pune and from the surrounding regions, but due lack of proper facilities and training programs the youngsters, especially the students find it difficult and expensive to seriously play the sport. “Most of them come from pool parlours,” he says.

“Sir Wilson Jones was from Pune and he twice won the World billiards championship in 1958 and 1964 and also became the first Indian to be a World champion in any sport. Then Arantxa Sanchis has done us proud with multiple championships victories in the Indian circuit and the world stage. The question is, now, how do we produce another champion?” questiones Vignesh.

Starting an academy with top coaches would help solve the problem. The Deccan Gymkhana has started a training facilities for up coming players allowing non-members to train on their tables. Deccan and PYC Gymkhana have been stepping stones for aspiring sportspersons in Pune.

“An academy in Pune would be fantastic as it would certainly improve the quality of the players from the region. The advantages would be that the youngsters would get an opportunity to train and play on the better facilities and under the guidance of renowned coaches. Another major factor is that it would be cost effective and reduce the burden on the upcoming players, especially the students,” pointed Vignesh.

“If all the promising are brought together to train under one roof it would definitely help them to concentrate only on the game and improving their skills,” he further added.

This is quite an expensive sport. For anyone who wants to play billiards or snooker has either to be a member of a club. There are parlours, which provide the facilities to play, but these prove costly.

“The Poona Club, Deccan Gymkhana, PYC, Turf Club have good billiards tables, but it is restricted only to members.”

Bombay has always produced good players, that is because most of them are members of clubs and gymkhanas. There are also many clubs who offer player or sports membership to talented players who in turn represent them in the billiards and snooker leagues. “It is not like there are not good enough players around here but it has to match up to Mumbai,” says Vignesh who carries a business of property.

Tags: world billiards championship