Table toppers in fine nick

Young Rafat Habib was confidence personified as he, along with some of the billards, snooker, pool and carrom team members, prepared themsel...

Young Rafat Habib was confidence personified as he, along with some of the billards, snooker, pool and carrom team members, prepared themselves to take the flight, bound for Busan, later tonight along with the squash squad.

Some of the green baiz e game8217;s team members, including Geet Sethi, Alok Kumar, Devendra Joshi, Pankaj Advani and Yasin Merchant along with coach Michael Ferreira were scheduled to take the flight from Mumbai tonight while players from this region, including Mukesh Rehani and Habib along with Ravi K Tandon manager left tonight from Delhi.

According to Habib, a snooker player, India should figure among the medal bracket in the game. His prediction gains currency because of the fact that snooker offers three gold, three silver and three bronze medals like the Pool game. But in Pool, India will have the strong resistance coming from the Thais and the Filipinos 8212; the two countries who are traditionally good at both Pool and Carrom.

As for billiards, where there are two gold, two silver and two bronze at stake, Habib expects two medals 8212; most probably gold 8212; in billiards where the experience of Geet Sethi, Alok Kumar and Devendra Joshi will count. 8216;8216;You can8217;t forget the fact that we have a world champion as our coach and his presence should inspire us all,8217;8217; said Habib. He was mentioning about coach Ferreira, who was recently presented the Dronacharya award.

Though the Indians may not be good when it comes to Pool game, what enhances their chance of winning medals is the two set of games 8212; eight and nine-ball events. The eight-ball game offers two medals each while in the nine-ball game there will three medals each. Along with the experienced Mukesh Rehani, youngsters Dharmender Lilly and Amit Khansaheb will be taking part in the Pool game while Siddharth Anand will be the lone competitor in the Carrom event.

Habib was happy with the training schedule that the 12-member squad had and the facilities provided to them. 8216;8216;This is one event where India stand a greater chance. Last time also we were among the medals at Bangkok,8217;8217; he said.