Cue Sports India ...

 

 

India remembers Independent India's first World Sporting Champ

 

Function Photographs

Audio of Press Conference
(Supported Media Player - Quick Time
or can be stored in mobile handsets to hear)


When India won their first series against England in Enland under Ajit Wadekar, a giant concrete cricket bat was erected in Indore.


Last week I passed that bat in a bus  carrying India's cue great who were giving a demonstration of snooker at the Emerald Heights International School. An idea came to mind: why not commemorate the golden jubilee of Wilson Jones' first world title on December 11 similarly with a giant cue that all Mumbai people would see. Well, Shyam Kotak, of the PJ Hindu Gymkhana, a family friend of 'Jones Family' took up that challenge and erected such a cue and it was there  when the golden jubilee of post-Independence India's first world title in any Sport Wilson Jones' world amateur billiards title in 1958 was ushered in style by Rosy Blue and P.J. Hindu Gymkhana on December 10.


A plea was also made on the day that henceforth every December 11 should be celebrated as World Billiards Day and they should revive a project close to Wilson's heart, the Western India Juniors Championship once sponsored by Amirali Merchant of Rexello Castors, the father of two-time Asian snooker champion Yasin. Yasin was there to  compare  the Jones show with great spirit.


Fifty years ago on December 11 1958, Jones beat another Indian, Chandra Hirjee, for five wins in a row to claim the title at the Great Eastern Hotel, Calcutta. He had beaten greats Tom Cleary of Australia and Leslie Driffeld of UK earlier. Jones, an Anglo-Indian from Pune, won the title again in 1964.


Jones' wife Peggy and her family mingled with later world champs like Geet Sethi, Ashok Shandilya, Asian snooker champ Yasin Merchant and Jones' protégés like Subhash Agrawal, Devendra Joshi and Dhruv Sitwala to recall the good times. Asked why Jones quit the game when he was good enough for more titles, the wife said: "He quit when people asked `why' and not `why not' "


Son Geoff said his dad was one of the greatest gentlemen sportsmen of India and believed in giving back to the game till his end.

 

There were also Jones' contemporaries 'Tony Monteiro' 70-year-old Prakash Rajani, 89-year-old Uttam Chandarana and Bharat Vissanji, at whose father RK Vissanji's home  Jones practiced as much as he wished.


Vissanji got Jones a job at Wallace Flour Mills soon after his world title. A  cake in the form of the Arthur Walker trophy for world billiards was cut by the wife and son Geoff. A Wilson Jones  commemorative mug  was unveiled. The gymkhana president, Ramesh Panchmatia, announced the launching of the Wilson Jones Billiards Academy.


Among those present where women players Meenal Thakur and Sangeeta Hemchand, for whom snooker is a therapy for a life-threatening disease, snooker pro Aditya Mehta, and former Test cricketers Bapu Nadkarni, Umesh Kulkarni and Yajurvindrasinh__all residents of Sports field where Jones lived in the latter part of his life. Nadkarni said Jones who used to chair the society's meetings was "a gentleman the likes of which are hard to find".


Geet Sethi said Jones' 1958 world title counted more than all the other world titles that came later (Geet himself has won eight) for it "gave us self-belief that foreigners could be beaten in a sport that they had dominated for decades together." Sethi, like Jones' successor, Michael Ferreira (who couldn't make it), said they were always given a fatherly treatment by Jones and little tips that made a big difference. Four-time world champ Ferreira, at 13, was fired by Jones' triumph in the Evening News of India trophy event.


Subhash Agrawal, World No 2 and among the earliest to be coached by Wilson along with his world snooker champ brother Om, said: "Sir impressed on us on discipline on and off the table."
 

Ashok Shandilya, Jones' his most successful student, said: "I went to him after I won the national title so as to prepare for the world event. He had 12 sessions after which Jones said, 'You have learnt all you need all will depend now on how much your practice'. I became No 2 and later world No 1. He told us to keep things simple, not be avaricious to play the top-table game that was Jones' forte."


Devendra Joshi said: "Jones coached me on the condition that I would give up cricket, my original game. I never regretted the decision having reached the world No 2 spot in 1995." Asian snooker champ Yasin Merchant said: "I was coached by Shyam Shroff and had just one session with him because I was staying in the suburbs. But Jones always wrote congratulatory letters when I did well." Yasin hoped suggestions raised during press conference of a commemorative postage champ to mark the jubilee and to celebrate December 11 every year as World Billiards Day would be implemented.


Seventy-year-old Prakash Rajani, a contemporary, said "People like Ferreira had better stroke play but Jones was the greatest tournament player." Prakash like  Uttam Chandarana, who will be 90 in June, is playing in the Wilson Jones memorial event being conducted at the gymkhana. Chandarana said: "We shared a platform once  in 1950 when the call came to ban communal tournaments and Jones made a strong speech. He was a  class act,'' said Chandarana also India's six-time National TT champ. Another TT great, Farokh Khodaiji, was also present.


Truly it was an evening one will cherish and hopefully Wilson Jones' family.
 

 

Pradeep Vijayakar

Wednesday 10 December 2008

 

Copyright © 2006 Cue Sports India
Last modified: Monday July 27, 2009 21:55:14 +0530