Known as the old man's game till sometime ago, Cue sports has undergone tremendous change over the last few years. Woman playing the sport was absolutely unheard of. Due to the equipment used in the sport and the money needed to maintain it, it has been considered as a sport for the elite.

India was put on the World Cue sport scene when Wilson Jones won his first world title in 1958. This year we celebrate India's 50 years of world level victories in the sport. The sport was popularized with it becoming the indoor form of recreation in pubs, discos, clubs and homes.

Often just regarded as a mode of recreation, Cue sports have begun to get recognition with victories at world level by the likes of Michael Ferreira, O.B. Agarwal, Manoj Kothari and Geet Sethi. It has changed the mindsets of people to believing that this is a serious sport.

With the advent of Pankaj Advani in the mid-90s – a ten year old spotted playing the sport was a revelation, which showed the nation that no game was too difficult to excel in. All that one needed was passion with the right facilities and encouragement. Most importantly the will to win.

It is now the most successful sport of India with over 20 world titles to its credit with Pankaj incredibly winning 4 of them by the age of 22. Pankaj raised the bar by being the only Indian and the only Asian to win world titles in both billiards and snooker. He is only the second person in the world to do so.

With the increasing interest the levels at which the sport is played has also gone up. There were only two categories played at a national level - junior (under 21) and senior. Now we also have the sub-juniors (under 17).