Joshi felicitated

Reward for reaching in finals of IBSF World Billiards 2008

Devendra Joshi, the finalist of IBSF World Billiards 2008

being felicitated at Matunga Gymkhana

Mumbai:  Reaching the final of the World Professional Billiards championships, at Bangalore for the third time, itself is quite a big achievement for Devendra Joshi, said former world billiards champion Michael Ferreira, at a felicitation function hosted by Samira Habitat at Matunga Gymkhana on Saturday night to honour the Bharat Petroleum cueist.

Citing his own case, when he too had finished second best in the same event earlier, how he practiced hard to prove his detractors wrong and  won the coveted title. He hoped that Joshi, too, would achieve that milestone very soon. Joshi was later presented with cheque of Rupees One Lakh by Mr. Sameer Nerurkar, the managing director of Samira Habitat, the sponsors of the function.

A galaxy of past champions like Subhash Agarwal, who himself was world billiards finialist in 1983, Yasin Merchant, the Asian snooker champion and former India hockey captain Dhanraj Pillay expressed their pleasure on Joshi’s achievement and hoped that next time he would finish at the top. The hockey stalwart expressed hope that Joshi’s achievements will also get recognition from the government, like they honour cricketers for their far less performances. While thanking the hosts, Joshi promised that he will try his best to be best in the next world billiards.
 

Special Correspondent - Mumbai

Sunday 14 September 2008