It’s been nearly a decade since Geet Sethi visited Chennai. The 61-year-old has fond memories of the city having won three titles –junior and senior billiards and junior snooker titles – at the National cuesports championships in 1981-82.
Here as a chief guest for the R. Ethiraj memorial snooker tournament, the eight-time world billiards (amateur & professional) champion heaped praise on Ethiraj, who was an international referee, coach and mentor for many in the cue sport fraternity.
“I got a call from Rafath Habib, former International cueist, inviting me for the tournament. I was very fond of Ethiraj and he was very fond of me. Without money and power, he contributed so much. He has given his entire life to the service of the game,” he said.
Sethi said there was no dearth of talent in the country and the important thing was to spot the talents and train them at the right time. “I always feel talent is there. There is more talent now primarily because there are more tables. In the last 20 years, more and more tables have been added in the country. To given you an example, the recent Gujarat State championships attracted 600 entries this year from one city, which is unheard of. Coaching at the right time for juniors is important,” he told Sportstar on Saturday.
According to Sethi, cricket’s Indian Premier League has shown the way for other sports including cuesports. “Frankly, cricket’s IPL has shown what sport can become. Badminton, table tennis, kabaddi and now kho kho has learnt from it. We don’t have to invent the wheel. Somebody has invented a beautiful product. We need to tweak it a little bit. That’s the way to go,” said Sethi.
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