Alok's double puts him up with snooker greats

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">MUMBAI: Alok Kumar didn''t sound too happy after emulating the likes of Indian cue greats Wilson Jones and Geet Sethi by winning both the senior national billiards and snooker titles the same year. <br /><br />It was a grand feat at the Gwalior Nationals for in billiards there were the world champ Ashok Shandilya and runner-up Geet Sethi and in snooker the world champ, teenager Pankaj Advani.Alok''s mind, when one congratulated him on his golden double was more on whether he would get a favourable reply from the Punjab government about a job in the police force.<br /><br />"The government rewards all prominent sportspersons with jobs. I am an Arjuna awardee, I have eight national titles and an Asian Games bronze. I have appeared for an interview for the post of DSP which is like the ACP in the Mumbai force. I have been told there is some problem, that''s why the delay. I am meeting the chief minister Capt Amrinder Singh, on Friday," said Alok from the car taking him form Delhi to his home near Ludhiana. <br /><br />Alok hails from Mandi Gobind Garh near Ludhiana, where he has a table at home but no quality players to practice. That''s where his motivation lay, he said when asked about it: "I had to prove with my dedication that I could surmount problems of lack of good players to play against and facilities."<br /><br />Alok would travel to a billiards parlour in Chandigarh for better practice playing with Haryana player Manoj Shrivastava. "In the last 70 years no one from Punjab has been coming close to the national titles in cue sport. I am proud that I have eight, four in snooker,three in billiards and one in pool." <br /><br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br />Besides he has been in seven times runner-up. "In 17 years I am happy to have achieved something for Punjab." Kudos earlier in the day came for Alok from the maestro himself Geet Sethi. <br /><br />Sethi was the last one to do the double (1985-1988)."He has done it in a great field. Asked to pinpoint the quality that made Alok a winner, Sethi said:``He hates to lose. One can''t bear to look at him when he is trailing." Alok''s international play has sometimes been disappointing, he didn''t do well as Sethi''s partner in the Asian Games billiards event and they got a silver. Alok now heads for the Asian pool tour. <br /><br />He is also looking forward to organising an India-Pakistan cue match in Chandigarh along with Yasin Merchant. Alok, 35, gave up minding the family business for the last couple of years for the sake of sport. He wishes mother Mayadevi was around but is happy that he has made father Karan Prakash happy, not to forget wife Ruchika and kids Vrinda and Vandit who has begun to pick up the cue. <br /><br />Happier still would be that <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">vardi</span> worn once by hockey star Pargat Singh and currently by cricket icon Harbhajan Singh, the one the Punjab Police. Alok has better claims for he has won his titles with the <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">danda</span>, albeit a variation of the one the cops use.</div> </div>