Next week, the nation would see the popular billiards returning to Bangaluru, as Karnataka State Billiards Association is hosting the ONGC IBSF World Billiards Championship from 1st September to last till 10th September.

In this 10 day even, championship would be conducted in the time and points format, while twenty four cueists from ten countries will compete for top honours.

Both the events will have Indians as the defending champions. Both Pankaj Adavni and Gujarat’s Rupesh Shah will put in their efforts to display a fine performance. While the points format is to be held from September 1 to 5, time format is planned from September 6 to 10.

The last time format event will be seen by this edition at the world championship. S. Balasubramanium, vice-president Billiards and Snooker Federation of India reported on Thursday, “With lack of interest from other countries, we after this championship we will suspend the points format for the next three years.”

One would definitely see a lot of exciting billiards action during these 10 days, as there are nearly five-world champions in the competition. If in case the 2002 champion Ashok Shandliya had not withdrawn from the competition, there would have been six world champions in this event.

For the event, there would be six groups of the players constituting four in each group. The three world titles holder, Pankaj Adavni who seemed to be pretty excited for the event said that he is looking forward to participate, but has not thought of any hat-trick as yet.

Adavni, the young man of 23 years old, reported, “I haven’t thought about it. I just want to go out there and enjoy my game. Winning a title for the country is always nice.”

There surely seems to be tough competition coming along for Advani with names like Peter Gilchrist of Singapore, the Khel Ratna awardee and Thailand’s Praprut Chaithanasakun participating in the event. The game lovers would be able to watch the semifinals and final of both time and point format on DD sports.

During the weekend days, Friday and Saturday, play-offs will be held to find two more Indians to fill the place in the groups. The Indian team ready for the fray, through direct entry, includes the names of, Geet Sethi, Pankaj Advani, Rupesh Shah Dhruv Sitwala, B. Bhaskar, Md. Asim and Sourav Kothari.