Ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani today said that anyone among Jaiveer Dhingra, Aditya Agarwal and Dhvaj Haria has the potential to replace him in future but advised the young guns to emerge as champions and winners in order to rise and shine.
"Between Jaiveer, Aditya and Dhvaj, we will definitely find a champion, but it all depends who comes out as a champion and as a winner. Any one can take my place in future. They are future of India. Sometimes you have the ability but don't have the quality to win," Advani told PTI in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the unveiling of world's first-ever vegan discount card, PETA's V-Card, here.
However, Advani said he had not thought of replacing anybody when he played his debut World Cup event in 2003.
"When I began and played for the first time in a world cup event in 2003, I never thought I was replacing somebody - yes Geet Sethi was there. He is still one of the best cue sports players we have produced. It is all about taking the quality of the game higher and higher, which matters," he said.
However, there are other players who are good like Sourav Kothari, he added.
Asked whether young cueists seek his advise for improving their game, Advani said they are keen students and don't hesitate to seek tips from him.
"We do discuss a lot about the game. They do come to me and they do watch all the matches of top players. Some of them also record matches which someone did in Leeds. They are keen students of the game and very open to constructive criticism. We are together to learn, to improve our individual game," he said.
Asked about his preparations for the IBSF World snooker championship, Advani said he does not want to practice much and instead wants to keep himself match hungry ahead of the world snooker tournament to be played here.
"I haven't practiced after I came back after winning the IBSF World Billiards Championship (timed format) in Leeds. I may start off practice from tomorrow, but do not want to practice much for next one week because I want stay hungry and save energy when it matters," he said.
