The veteran cueist says he will not put his money on the world champion if pitted against the ‘lethal’ Peter GilchristBANGALORE: For over three decades, Geet Sethi has proved that he is indeed a champion on the green baize. Now, at 47, Sethi continues to find fulfilment every time he competes. As the knockout phase of the 42nd IBSF World Billiards Championship unveiled, DNA caught up with the master cueist at the Karnataka State Billiards Association here on Sunday.
Having won five World Professional Billiards titles and three IBSF World Billiards titles, Sethi says, “To play at the highest level and inspire people to take to the sport is what keeps me going.”
And even though retirement is still a distant thought, Sethi knows well that his successor is the newly crowned IBSF World Billiards champion Pankaj Advani. “It is for everybody to see. At the age of 23, he has four World billiards titles and a World snooker title; it’s phenomenal. He is a terrific performer.” He further added that each generation betters the achievement of the previous and feels the prodigious Advani would take cue sports to the new level.
As a purist billiards player, Sethi enjoys playing the time format but feels that the shorter version of the game is slowly taking over. “It is what the world wants. People look for instant gratification. If we need to survive, we need to adapt and adopt. It is perhaps the only way to get more players into the sport.”
When asked who he rated higher in the time format, his contemporary Peter Gilchrist of Singapore or the 23-year-old Advani, he said: “Pankaj has performed really well. He has been able to deliver consistently but in the time format Peter is a terrific player, he is lethal actually. If the two are playing then I will not put my money on Pankaj.”
It was in 2001 that Sethi won his previous IBSF World title in billiards; is he going to be the contender to beat in the run up to the title? “You cannot make your mind go so far ahead; you lose focus on what you have to do now. It has been a good start and it
would be nice to continue in the same way.”
