Kothari appointed chief national cuesports coach

New Delhi: Former world billiards champion Manoj Kothari was today appointed chief national cuesports

coach by the Sports Authority of India for a period of one year. Kothari, a mechanical engineer by profession, was handed the job on the recommendation of the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India. "I am absolutely delighted. The federation told me that for so many years you have worked with us like a coach, then why don`t you take up the full-time job. They said you are the finest player the game has ever seen and your mentoring will help young players achieve success at both national and international level," Kothari said. "Whatever federation asked me to do, whether it`s coaching, ministry related work or making players understand the nuances of the game, I have done everything and may be the BSFI felt that it`s time to reward me with the top job," added Kothari, who retired from competitive play in the year 2003. Kothari said his priorities as coach will be to spread the popularity of the game at the national level and to strengthen India`s stature in the Pool and Snooker discipline. "Now there is going to be lot more responsibility on my shoulders. My priorities will be to take the game to different cities and improve India`s standing in the pool and Snooker.” "Our game still needs some improvement. We are not as good as English players in terms of technique. We still need to work on that area. Pankaj Advani and Geet Sethi have done extremely well at the international stage to establish India`s name in Billiards and I want young players to excel like them," said Kothari. Having more than two decades of experience in the Corporate world as engineer -Quality Control, Kothari easily introduced Management tools and techniques like Swot analysis, Graphs, charts, diagrams etc to help players record, analyse and understand their level of play. Kothari, before joining the game as a professional, had worked for 20 years for some of the finest corporate names in the country and said the decision to quit the corporate career was completely passion driven. In July 2004, acknowledging Kothari`s prowess in the field of Billiards and Snooker, ONGC inducted him as coach of their Cue Sports Team comprising Pankaj Advani, Alok Kumar, Sourav Kothari, Dhruv Sitwala and Rupesh Shah. In August 2005, Kothari added yet another feather to his cap when he was conferred with the prestigious Dhyan Chand Award by the then erstwhile President of India A P J Abdul Kalam. Meanwhile, commenting on Kothari`s selection as the chief coach, BSFI vice-president Ravi Tandon said, "I was the one who first said to him that take up the job of coaching. I was the person who convinced him. I am very much happy with the decision and looking forward for some good results." PTI