India’s Pankaj Advani has had a dream run after the cueist won his 28th world title. He defeated Robert Hall of England 4-2 at the IBSF World Billiards Championship that took place in Doha on Saturday, November 9. It also happened to be his seventh world title in a row, a streak that began in 2016.
He also survived two years of vacuum created by the deadly Covid-19 pandemic. Sports Today caught up with Advani for an exclusive chat where he spoke about his career and his dream run. He also talked about making snooker a popular sport in India and trying to increase its visibility.
Here are the excerpts from Pankaj Advani’s interview
Q: World title number 28. Has the feeling sunk in that you continue to win, win and only win at this point in time?
A. This is what I’ve worked for. And when I started off my career in Billiards and Snooker, I never imagined that I would win so much. It’s not fully sunk in as yet. At the same time, I think I’m a long-term person. I don’t want to just win one title or win, you know, one two big events and then take it easy and be complacent. Even after winning this particular championship, I feel like there’s so much to work on in terms of my game, in terms of my mental approach to the sport, where I am at and reassess what, you know, what my goals are.
Q. Pankaj, whenever we do a Google search for you, okay, whatever are your titles, it’s only Pankaj Adwani’s won. It’s always about winning. How do you maintain this beast mentality of winning on such a consistent basis?
A. I would love to mention my brother over here, Sree Adwani, who’s a sports psychologist and a mind coach. We’ve taken years to achieve this. There’s still so much room for improvement even though I may be winning. In fact, even this championship, which I played recently, and I won, I wasn’t at my absolute best. But I’ve learned how to manage those days as well. I think the main point here is to understand yourself and understand that in sport, you’re going to make mistakes.
It’s not going to be a flawless performance every day. Whether you take tennis, nobody’s going to win 6-0, 6-0 every day. When you accept that sport is full of uncertainty, and then even in the midst of that chaos, you’re able to maintain your peace, you’re able to maintain your killer instinct and say, okay, fine, I’m going to do what I’m going to do, whatever is in my control, and leave the results to a divine power.
Q. Pankaj, about a couple of years ago, you had said that you had conditioned your mind to break certain trends. How should the mentality be, especially in pressure situations, especially for us, Indian sportspersons? We’ve seen in Olympics, we have seen in major sporting events, somewhere down the line, pressure does tend to get to us. How do you keep it away from you?
A. The simplest way to put this across is that avoid thinking about the outcome. I know it’s very, very difficult to do that. Because before you go for a major championship, it happens to me, it happens to every top sportsperson, the thought definitely crosses your mind, am I going to win this? Am I going to get a medal? Am I going to lift the trophy? When I go for a championship, obviously, my standards are very high that I’ve set for myself, which sometimes is not a great thing. In sport, you need to undo, unlearn and shed a lot of the baggage before you go to any major championship.
I’m not there just to, you know, make a trip out of it or say, okay, fine, my aims are not that high. And you know, just I’ll settle for a bronze, I’ll settle for anything. I’m there because I want to win it.
But when I say that to myself, I also have to forget the thought of winning and, you know, try and live in the present. So I think that’s where many Indian athletes, I feel, you know, needed to understand that it’s all about playing the game first.
The outcome is a much, it’s just one occurrence, but the entire fun and the challenge lies in how you manage your game, how you tackle your opponents, how you understand the conditions, you know, what approach you use at a given point in the match, how you prepare for yourself off the arena, you know, your habits, your mindset, what you eat, all of those things come into the picture.
So but I don’t like it when, you know, people write articles in the media saying that this person won the bronze medal or won the silver medal. We didn’t win bronze or silver. We settled for them. We won the gold. So when you think on those lines, then your standards obviously go up to the next level. Right.
Q, Pankaj, when you won the 28th title, okay, there was obviously a lot of happiness. But then on social media, you seem to be a very quiet guy. I mean, the achievements are posted, everybody celebrates it. But the quietness by which you go about it, the humble nature that you go about it, are you comfortable with that?
A. I think it’s up to the people of our country. This is a question that I wouldn’t want to answer because I’m still here. I’m doing what I do best or I’m trying to do what I do best in the best possible way, trying to put India on the map as much and as often as possible.But it’s up to the people of India, the media, the people who consume sport, the people who follow sport, the authorities, the people who govern the sport. It’s up to them to, you know, celebrate the achievements of their champions.
And I don’t know if I’m anybody to say anything on this. If I do say something that it’ll be like I’m hankering for certain accolades or recognition or awards. I have made peace with it, but I know that things can improve. But it’s not up to me entirely. I think it’s up to a lot of people who want to accept that, okay, there are other sports in India that are actually doing really well, if not better than the mainstream sports as of now.
Q, Pankaj, last question. What is going to happen now? You’re gunning for title number 29-30. What is the season like for Pankaj heading into 2025?
A. I will compete in the national and a few international events. I would really love to do something for the sport in India. I feel like it deserves a lot more in terms of television coverage, in terms of visibility in the media, in terms of giving the youngsters an opportunity and a chance to showcase their skills. I really, really want to do something for the game. But having said that, I’m also an active player. So it gets a bit tricky if you’re going to don several hats.
I’d want to get into the administration, that’s for sure. Because I just believe that as a player, you view things from a very different lens. And I can feel what the players are feeling that, you know, while a few of us have jobs in various public sector enterprises and companies, and are doing okay, but I want to, you know, ensure that a lot more people get an opportunity to play the sport.
