CHENNAI: As Cyclone Michaung wreaked havoc in Chennai inundating localities and stranding people in their homes without food and water, the ongoing 90th National Billiards and Snooker Championship had to be paused for two days with cueists from across the country confined to their hotel rooms. The championships commenced at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in the city on November 21.
Ace cueist Pankaj Advani was one of the participants. Advani, who recently lifted the IBSF World Billiards Championship title in Doha for a staggering 26th time, admitted it was for the first time in his long career that he got two days off during the tournament. He was also amazed by the resilience the residents of the city showed despite being hit by the cyclone and its after-effects.
“I think this is the first time in our careers where we’ve had two days fully off, away from the table, away from everything, just confined to our hotel rooms. But I think more importantly, I was really worried for Chennai and how the people managed. It’s amazing the resilience of the people in the city to come back within a day after the cyclone and resume like everything has come back to normal,” Advani said.
As was the case with almost everyone in the city, the cueists were cut off from their families and friends due to no mobile connectivity and power outages.
“We could not communicate with our families and friends for three days but the organizing committee was very helpful, they provided us with food and other facilities. The supply was not enough as the whole city was reeling under the cyclone. You cannot blame anyone for it,” said Johnson Narsidani, a cueist from Gujarat.
The hosts, Tamilnadu Billiards and Snooker Association worked tirelessly to restore normalcy. “After the cyclone, we came here and worked hard to make everything normal. It was a challenging moment for us, we had faced many logistic issues and we were also concerned about the players and their food and the communication with them but our team fought and managed everything. We also scheduled extra sessions every day to compensate for the days lost due to the cyclone. We will finish the championship on time under the guidance of our chief referee Prakash.” said BG Muralidharan, TNBSA president.
Meanwhile, Advani entered the semifinals of the 6-Red snooker event at the ongoing championships, beating Petroleum Sports Promotion Board teammate Brijesh Damani on Friday. He will take on Malkeet Singh of RSPB in the last four rounds.
