Sports code must give primacy to athletes: Pankaj Advani

“The world’s sports policy needs to be centred on the athletes and their requirements. Only then will it be successful,” he said on the sidelines of the 3rd Kolkata Open National Invitation Snooker Championship 2017 organised by the West Bengal Billiards Association which kicked off on Tuesday at the Bengal Rowing Club.

Talking about the country’s performance in the Olympics, Advani said: “In our country we give much greater importance to results in quadrennial events like the Olympics than to consistent performance at world events. Consistency is the hallmark of a champion in any sport.

“Ask Roger Federer how he compares his performances at the Olympics versus Wimbledon. He rates Wimbledon higher. And he has won seven times there,” he said.

Speaking about his 16th World Championship title, he said that he was looking forward to the 2017 season. “I enjoy my game and would like to keep playing as long as possible.”

Aditya Mehta, the country’s only professional snooker player and the current National Snooker Champion, said he was looking to improve on his world ranking in this year but rued that given the state of cuesports in the country, it would perhaps take 10-15 years to come up to international standards in the professional circuit.