NEW DELHI: As International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) has decided to cancel this year's tournaments due to the coronavirus pandemic, India's leading cueist Pankaj Advani said that while it is unfortunate, the decision taken by the federation is understandable, keeping in mind the prevailing situation.
"It is unfortunate that tournaments have been cancelled, but we all know about the current situation and why they have taken this decision," Advani told ANI.
IBSF Executive on Saturday held a virtual meeting to discuss the impacts of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, following which the federation had taken the decision.
"The IBSF has, therefore, decided to CANCEL all IBSF tournaments for the year 2020. These tournaments will not be rescheduled," IBSF had said in a statement.
The coronavirus pandemic has caused disruption in every aspect of daily life and has affected all sports across the globe. In India, a nation-wide lockdown was imposed in March to contain the virus.
Stressing that every athlete needs to adapt to any given situation, Advani said he looked at the brighter side of things and had utilised his time during the lockdown to learn new things and had spent time with family.
"I spent a lot of time with my family which we generally don't get to because of all the tours. I also learned a few things online during the lockdown period... It was the longest break I have ever had," said Advani.
However, the country has started to go back to normalcy, with the government relaxing several lockdown restrictions.
Last year, Advani had opined that if the country calls itself a sporting nation, then "we need to celebrate the achievements of all our athletes equally and not just one or two sports". When asked if there has been any change in this regard since the last one year, Advani asserted that it will take time for things to improve, however, the 35-year-old is optimistic.
Recently, in a show named 'The Finish Line', Indian Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra had said that winning the gold medal at Olympics was his "greatest thrill" but it only lasted for a few seconds.
"Well, I think the greatest emotion that I had felt was one of relief... And it was a huge amount of relief that what I had set out to do in life, I was able to achieve that," Bindra had said.
"That was the greatest emotion that I felt. Of course, I was happy, it was the greatest thrill of my life. I felt that thrill for maybe two seconds and that's it. But relief and satisfaction and fulfillment was something I think was important," he had added.
Reflecting on the same, Advani, who will be featuring on the show on Friday, said everyone has his/her own perception to things. He added that for him, his first title was the most special because of the novelty factor to it.