Advani elected as KSBA joint secretary

Pankaj Advani with his mentor Arvind Savur

Bengaluru, August 20: India's ace cueist Pankaj Advani will soon double up as an administrator after being elected as joint secretary of the Karnataka State Billiards Association (KSBA) for a two-year term at its 64th Annual General Meeting.

The meeting saw Advani's mentor, coach and former national champion Arvind Savur being elected as president.

It may be recalled that at a press conference to announce his candidature, Advani had clearly indicated that he would continue as an active player even if he is elected.

"Should I be elected, I will focus on general issues, and not on individual matters of the players. When I enter a tournament, I will be just another player," he added

Subsequent to 64th Annual General Meeting of the Karnataka State Billiards Association (KSBA) and Election for the year 2018-20, following got elected yesterday as Office Bearers and Committee Members of KSBA.... https://t.co/VOupzpav0g
— Cue Sports India 🇮🇳 (@cuesportsindia) August 20, 2018

And being elected, India's golden boy Advani, who has won multiple world titles across all formats of cue sports, made it amply clear that there would not be any conflict of interest.

"My role as joint secretary would be to attend to matters outside of the playing table. Playing the game will always be my priority," Advani was quoted as saying in local media.

When pressed further, the 33-year-old justified the rationale behind his decision to turn into administration, despite him being an active player in the circuit.

"Arvind uncle told me about his intentions to contest, and I agreed with many of his points. One of my main goals is to get cue sports included in the Department of Youth Services and Sports charter," the 19-time world champion said.

On his part, the 76-year-old Savur, who is Advani's coach said he is keen to get more support for cue sports from the Sports Ministry.

The other KSBA office bearers to get elected include former national billiards coach S Jairaj (vice president), S Rathan Kumar (secretary) and Prakash Keny (treasurer).

The KSBA Executive Committee members comprise Kishore Khurana, Sanjay Punjabi, K Bunty, Vinod Kumar Jain, CL Raghunath, N Girish, Sudhir Srinivasan, M Prashanth and L Sathyanarayana.