Top cueists gear up for the World team championship

New Delhi: Having displayed their individual brilliance on the green baize, the Indian cueists are now eager to deliver as a team in the inaugural IBSF World Billiards Team Championship, which commences in Glasgow on Monday. Pankaj Advani, who recently made the country proud again by not only winning the IBSF World 6-Red Snooker Champion-ship but also creating a unique record of winning the world titles in the longer and shorter formats of both billiards and snooker, has teamed up with veteran cueists with an eye on another world title.

“After the 6-Red World Championship this is the next major I am going to participate in. So from the short format in snooker to the long one in billiards is a shift to the other end ofthe spectrum. But that’s what I thrive on specialising in two sports,” Advani said ahead of the four-day event.The Bengalurean, who has nine World titles of which seven are from billiards, has Rupesh Shah, Devendra Joshi and Ashok Shandiliya in his team.

Advani, 29, believes consistency and teamwork will be key to success.The other Indian team comprise former world snooker winner Alok Kumar, reigning Asian snooker champion Sourav Kothari, Asian Games bronze medallist (1998) Balachandra Bhaskar and two-time world billiards runner-up Dhruv Sitwala. National snooker champion Kothari, whose father is a former world billiards champion and is travelling with the team as a coach, is keen to make his mark in the world of billiards as well.