Golden boy of cuesports doesn’t settles for a silver

At 62-63 in the deciding frame in the final, the red carpet was being readied for Alok and partner Geet Sethi before the Thai pair Chaitanasakun Praprut and Kanfaklang Mongkhon served a grim truth. The best-of-three 100-point-frame format was more like a Russian roulette than the Indian recipe so the end arrived without allowing them a blink.

“This format is like a five-over cricket match. So for teams like ours, which have played only in the longer version at the international level, the switch wasn’t easy,” Alok reasons. Which is why he values the silver.

Looking at this dapper player, it’s difficult to imagine that he picked up the cue in the dusty steel township of Mandi Gobindgarh, where he grew up in a business family. Billiards, snooker or pool should have been the last thing on his mind, but a table at home helped.

“Not many (in Mandi Gobingarh) know of my (sporting) achievements. Even now, only close friends would know about the Asiad silver,” he says.

It wasn’t easy, Alok tells you, without a sparring partner in this part of the country. He was on his own, with a few friends and patrons like Sutlej Club (Ludhiana) egging him on, and a father more than sporting encouragement, as he reeled off titles in junior tournaments.

Soon enough, he proved his mettle in the senior category as well: Alok is the reigning national snooker and pool champion.

It should have been smooth sailing for this billiard wizard but for the inertia-ridden state association in Punjab. “You won’t believe it, but I have been running around and paying for my own in tournaments,” he reveals. “Apart from me and Dharmendra Lilly, Punjab hasn’t produced any other player in cuesport because of lack of awareness. Who should we blame? Is it not the officials?”

Alok found a way out of this. He came up with the concept of pool tournaments in the state and is now happy with the upward graph: “There were around 500 participants this year and we expect at least 1,000 the next.’’

He has other dreams for the future.

“I am going for the World Snooker Championships in Cairo (Egypt) next week and a medal there will be nice. But we are pinning all our hopes on the World Billiards Championship (Sydney, in November), where we remain the favourites as usual,” he beams.

Does he mean a gold this time?