Seven-time world billiards champion Geet Sethi predicted a bright future for the 9-Ball Pool game in India, the fastest growing cue sport in the world, if the country can find a hero who makes waves in the world professional circuit.
"It will explode if we can find a hero, a maverick, who makes it to the world professional circuit and does well there and is constantly seen on television. Already I see signs of more and more people taking up the game [during the ongoing 9-Ball Pool Nationals in Mumbai]," Sethi told reporters.
"If you have a hero then the game's profile goes up. See tennis, for example, with Sania Mirza, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes," he said.
But Sethi also pointed out the difficulties in getting into the pool circuit.
"The South East Asian circuit is very tough," he said.
"If snooker is ten times as attractive as billiards, I feel pool is 25 times more attractive than snooker. In these nationals I find around 50-60 players concentrating on the pool game," said Sethi, who is focused on next year's Asian Games in Doha.
Asked to single out some players with good touch for the game, Sethi named Punjab's Dharmender Lilly, Delhi's Sandeep Gulati and Petroleum Sports Promotion Board's Manan Chandra as the trio he found had it in them to go high.
"Lilly is very focused on pool and has practiced hard by playing in pool parlours. Then there's Gulati and Manan who are playing well. If they start practising hard and if they attend coaching camps then their play is bound to improve," he said.
Sethi echoed former three-time world amateur billiards champion Michael Ferreira's views that there is no one in India good enough to take up coaching in the game.
"Yes, there's none," he admitted and expressed happiness at the reported move by the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India to rope in a foreign coach, like the great Filipino, 51-year-old former world 8-ball and 9-ball champion Efren Reyes, nicknamed `Bata' (The Magician).
Asked how different is pool from snooker or billiards, Sethi said it was very different as the size of the pool table itself is smaller, the cloth and ball is different.
"You need to use the cushions more because the pool table is smaller."
Sethi said he prefers different teams for billiards, snooker and pool that would be medal sports in the Doha Asiad.
"Yes, I would personally advocate separate teams for these three. It is not advisable to play all together in order to make a mark at that level," he added.
He said Indians tend to do well in games where the skill levels needed are higher than the need for power or contact.
"We do well in sports which are skill oriented for example snooker, shooting, golf, archery -- where physical contact is minimal and power play is also less."
Sethi also advised players who are chosen for singles play, not to dabble in doubles at the next Asiad.
"That is my personal view, that a singles player should play only in singles. Each country can send four entries in billiards, five in snooker and as many in pool for the Doha Games," he said.
Asked whether he intends hanging up his cue once the Asian Games are over, he said he is not thinking on those lines.
"Let's see how I feel after the Games. In the last Games a gold medal [in cue sports] was won by a 70-year-old player [Mongkhon Kanfaklang billiards doubles]," he said, indicating age does not matter in cue sports.
Sethi also predicted that cue sports in India would be dominated in future by the likes of youngsters like Pankaj Advani, who has won both the IBSF billiards and snooker titles in his career, Manan Chandra and Sourav Kothari.
"Pankaj's game is already lethal. He has set a benchmark for himself. I feel he can improve it till he reaches the age of 24. He can be even better in future," the champion cueist predicted.
