The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : Inter-unit billiards & snooker meet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 12, 2004

Sport

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Inter-unit billiards & snooker meet

BANGALORE, OCT. 11. Bharat Petroleum will conduct the inaugural PSPB inter-unit billiards and snooker tournament. The five-day event will be held at the KSBA hall from October 12 to 16.

"We intend to nurture the talent and promote new potential players. I for one will not accommodate established players," said Mr. Vasanth, DGM, Bharat Petroleum, who addressed the press on the eve of the inaugural PEPS billiards & snooker championship.

ONGC, with the likes of double National champion Alok Kumar, World champion Pankaj Advani, the highly-talented Dhruv Sitwala and the prodigy in Sourav Kothari, simply look out of the league in this five-team event.

ONGC, Oil, IBP, IOC-AOD and the host Bharat Petroleum consist of the five teams. "Hopefully the other sectors of the Oil Companies will induct the rich talent available in our country in the coming years.

The team events will be played on a 100-point format while the individual event will be based on the two-hour format," said Devendra Joshi, former National champion. Bharat Petroleum, on its own, has Manan Chandra of Delhi besides Joshi in its rolls. "It's an opportunity for our other colleagues to get into the groove and show their potential," said Mr. Vasanth.

"It's a great feeling that these oil companies have come forward to provide us the job security now its left to us to perform for them," chorused the entire lot.

Pankaj Advani, Alok Kumar and Manan Chandra will stay out of the individual events, since it will be the basis for selecting the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) team for the Nationals. "Wish there were points that could be carried forward from the team championships," felt a couple of top players.

All in all it augurs well for the sport with the coming in of the Petroleum companies. The tournament will be inaugurated by S. Mariswamy, Commissioner of Police, Karnataka.

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