KARACHI, 9 June 2005 — World billiards champion Pankaj Advani arrived here yesterday hoping to help India defend their Peace Cup snooker title against archrivals Pakistan.
Advani heads a four-man team bidding for India’s first away win in the annual competition between the South Asian neighbors, which started in 2003 after a three-year hiatus in sporting ties.
“It’s going to be as tough as Indo-Pak cricket or hockey match because the pressure of an Indo-Pak match exists in snooker as well,” said Advani, also a former world amateur billiards champion.
India coach Michael Ferreira, himself a former world billiards champion, also said the competition would provide a stern test for his team which also includes Alok Kumar, Devendra Joshi and Manan Chandra.
“We recently had one (Lal Krishna) Advani here to further India-Pakistan relations and now we have another young Advani (Pankaj) to improve snooker ties,” he added, referring to the Indian political leader who visited this week.
