BHUBANESWAR 27-Jul-2007 88
Despite hosting World Billiards Championship in late 90s, Orissa is now struggling to live up to its reputation in cuesports. But against many odds, youngsters have managed to keep the sport afloat. Among the cueists of the state, Kunal Agarwal and his younger sister Priyanka have already proved their mettle in the National championships.
The Agarwal siblings, along with their fellow teenagers Rakesh Roshan Pradhan, Mohammad Raza, Sarthak Das, Shivam Nag and S P Pattnaik are working sincerely to achieve greater success. Eighteen-year-old Kunal hit the headlines earlier this year by finishing runner-up in the sub-junior National billiards championship at Bangalore.
He lost to defending champion Shabaz Adil Khan (West Bengal) in the final 450-375 despite taking an early lead. However, the graceful Bhubaneswar lad returned with a trophy for registering the highest break of 67 in the championship.
A plus-three commerce student of BJB College, Kunal earlier reached pre-quarterfinals of the junior National billiards championship twice (2004 and 2005) before losing to World champion Pankaj Advani on both the occasions.
Son of leading businessman K K Agarwal, Kunal took to cuesports when he was a kid. While studying in standard six, he played his maiden National at Chennai in 2001. Inspired by his mother Poonam Agarwal and guided by coach Ahsan-ul Haque, Kunal won the first of his three State junior billiard titles three years ago. Now he is honing his skill under the guidance of Dronacharya awardee Arvind Savur, who is also the coach of Pankaj Advani.
A gentle and jovial youngster, Kunal`s work-ethics not only makes him a good cueist but a good student as well. He devotes three hours for studies, five hours for chartered accountancy as a trainee, three hours for sports and still finds enough time to relax with family and friends.
``Youngsters have to keep themseleves busy in meaningful work, if they hope to become successful citizens in the future,`` K K Agarwal, also a practising company secretary.
As far as sports is concerned Kunal has set three years as the duration to establish himself as leading cueist of the country. ``I have a target to become junior National billiards champion by 2008. After that I will decide whether to stay or quit competitive sports,`` he admits.
Taking a cue from his brother, 15-year-old Priyanka has also made her mark in the billiards map of the country. After playing three ladies Nationals, she now occupies a place in the top-ten rankings. In her second National at Chennai, she upset former National champion Kamla Chandrababu befor being beaten by reigning champion Meenal Thakur in the quarterfinals.
An 11th standard student of DAV Public School, Unit-8, Priyanka started as a tennis player but later switched over to billiards and snooker. So far, she has been taking coaching from A Haque. But her parents are planning to send her to Arvind Savur as well.
Priyanka`s first goal is to emulate the achievement of Amrita Mohapatra by becoming the National runner-up in ladies` billiards. ``Thereafter, sky is the limit,`` she signs off.
