India cue sports legend Pankaj Advani continues to quietly build on a legacy that few can match. The 41-year-old added another chapter to his remarkable career last month, clinching his 29th world title at the WBL World Billiards Championship in Birmingham. Having defeated several former champions en route to the crown, Advani made the triumph all the more special, coming two years after his previous major billiards title.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better outing this time,” Advani said, speaking to Reporter World. “I worked really hard for this particular trophy. It was a very high-quality tournament with all the best players from across the world. This victory is truly special.”
More than 20 years have passed since his first world title, but Advani has never lost sight of what that victory meant to him. It was not just a trophy. It gave him the confidence to believe that he belonged among the best in the world. “When I won my first world title at the age of eighteen, it was obviously something that I didn’t expect so early in my life, but that changed a lot of things for me because it instilled a sense of self-belief that can’t be described in words. It can only be put into action.”
That belief has stayed with him through a career spanning two decades, 29 world titles and two distinct disciplines. Advani's success in billiards and snooker has often left people wondering how he has managed to win so many world titles.
The answer lies partly in his willingness to compete across formats, rather than confine himself to one discipline. “There are so many times that people ask me, ‘Oh, how have you won 29 world titles?’ and I have to explain to them that, listen, we have formats in billiards — the short format, the long format — it’s snooker, the short and the long, and then there are team championships as well. So I’m glad that I’ve been able to diversify and become a versatile cueist rather than just having stuck to one discipline.”
For Advani, the two sports offer very different challenges. Billiards demands stamina, concentration and endurance, while snooker requires accuracy, precision and tactical awareness. Switching between them has kept him motivated, but it was not always an easy decision. Early in his career, several senior players questioned whether he could succeed in both disciplines. Advani, however, was determined to find out for himself.
“I wanted to redefine the word specialisation, and I was on a mission very early in my career to prove them wrong,” he said. “But now it's not about proving people wrong. I think it's about proving to myself.”
A call for action
For all his success, Advani knows that not every athlete in India gets the same opportunities or recognition. The lack of attention given to sports outside cricket has long been a concern, and he believes the conversation needs to move beyond simply asking for more support.
“When you hear the players say, it’s just not enough. I feel like Indian sport has reached a stage where it’s not enough for the athletes to just voice their opinions and say, ‘Oh yes, we need more of this or more support or more infrastructure or more funding for our development and training.’ It’s time to do things. And as a sports person I can only tell you one thing: it’s only the actions that really speak. Words are not enough anymore.”
He believes that celebrating champions across different sports and providing them with the support they need could encourage more young athletes to pursue their ambitions. “So if I tell you, for example, ‘Yes, okay, fine, there’s a lack of support for sports like billiards, snooker or any other sport which is not considered mainstream,’ but we’re doing really well in it by the way, whether it’s shooting or archery or chess or whatever, but we still need to celebrate our stars in these respective sports and give more recognition to our champions. But by saying it, it’s just not enough. I think the action needs to take place. Only then we will see a plethora of stars emerge from different fields of sport.”
Still chasing something more
It is perhaps a reflection of Advani's mindset that, even after 29 world titles, he does not believe he has reached his full potential. For someone who has achieved so much, the admission might seem surprising. But he insists that winning trophies does not necessarily mean he has become the best player he can be.
“I don't think I've reached my full potential as a player, although it might be sounding weird after winning so much,” he said. “Just because I've won so much doesn't mean that I'm the best version of myself as a player or as a person.”
That desire to keep improving has been shaped by the people around him, including his long-time coach Arvind Savoor, his brother Shree, a sports psychologist, and tennis great Roger Federer. Advani first met his coach Savoor at the Karnataka State Billiards Association, where he continues to practise and which he considers his second home. He was only 10 or 11 at the time, but he knew immediately that Savoor was the coach he wanted to learn from.
When Advani and his brother first approached him, however, Savoor refused to take him on, believing the young boy was too short to begin training. For Advani, it was devastating. “And it was the worst day of my life. I started doing pull-ups, I started playing basketball, I started doing anything to just gain a couple of inches in height.” “And six months later when I started playing the game a little better, he himself came up to me and says, ‘You know what, now you’re ready and now I want to take you under my wings.’ And he did not charge me a single penny.”
The memory remains deeply personal for Advani. It was the beginning of a relationship with a man he now considers a “father-figure”.
The next challenge
His next major assignment is the World Snooker Championship in Indore. He spent a week training in Sheffield immediately after Birmingham and plans to take only a short break at home before resuming full preparations.
More than two decades after his first world title, Advani is still looking for ways to improve. The trophies may keep coming, but the motivation remains the same, to see just how far he can go.
