Advani seeks corporate support to fulfil London Dreams

When Pankaj Advani was rewriting history books on the Professional Circuit, he had hoped that corporate sponsorship would come in good measure but the eight-time world champion is now realising that the burden of expenses is huge and the support, little.

After a successful maiden season on the highly competitive and hugely expensive pro circuit, Advani is aiming to be back in London again.

"Going to England to play in the Pro circuit requires a lot of money, it involves certain expenses and to meet the cost involved, I am in talks with some of the corporate houses," Advani told PTI.

"It's a very expensive thing to go out there and play a full season. I am looking out for support. I am speaking to people out there. So far, ONGC was kind enough to bear half of my expenses this season but it's about more funding and definitely I would be looking for corporate sponsorship.

"I am hoping that I'll get the required support to be able to go out there and play the whole season. There are still couple of months before the next season and I am hoping that something good happen in the next two months. I have started seeing people by myself," said the champion cueist.

Without corporate sponsorship, it would be difficult for Advani to make his dream a reality.

The only active player to compete at the highest level in both billiards and snooker concurrently in the same season, Advani had created history in only his first season on the Pro circuit when he became the first Indian cueist ever to reach the quarterfinals of the Welsh Open Pro Snooker Series last month in Wales.

Not only this, he had made it to the semi-finals of European Tour-1 Paul Hunter Classic in Germany, another first for an Indian and also qualified for the richest pro-snooker tournament in the world, USD 9,50,000 'International Championship' (Venue Stages) in October last year in Chengdu, China.

Earlier this season, he defeated some of the big names in the Pro circuit like Shaun Murphy, Steve Davis, Jimmy White, Nigel Bond, Alan McManus, Michael Holt, Mark King, Ryan Day and John Higgins to stamp his authority.