Ace cueist Pankaj Advani, who has twice won the "grand double" of Point and Time formats at the IBSF World Billiards Championships, feels that the shorter version of the game will make billiards spectator friendly.
"There are different schools of thought, one which says that the traditional format judges one's ability. But the point format is faster, interesting and gives everyone an equal chance.
"Keeping the bigger picture in mind, we decided to skip the time format and support point format. It's good for the game. Making the game attractive and spectator-friendly is the way forward," Advani told reporters in Mumbai, on the sidelines of a promotional event for Citizen Watches.
"If you are a snooker player...you have a chance of winning a 100-up game. It's done in the Asian Games. It is a little disadvantage to the perfectionist but everyone loves Twenty20," added the 26-year-old Bangalorean.
Advani, who along with the Indian team skipped the traditional format at the recently held world championships in Ireland, revealed it was done so at the insistence of Asian Confederation of Billiards Sports president Sindhu Pulsirivong.
"What happened was that Mr Sindhu Pulsirivong, Asian Confederation president...he has done a lot for the game in South East Asia and other parts of the world...He said 'we don't want you to play the longer form of the game'."
"Everyone's shortening the format, making it more unpredictable. So that is why he told us not to play the time format this year. They basically want to do away with the longer form of the game to sort of make it extremely competitive, short and unpredicatble," he said.
"We may not have the time format in the future. We may have only one (traditional) tournament in England, that we would be able to play," he said adding that players from South East Asians like India, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam were supporting the cause.
Advani, who finished second behind Mike Russell recently in the world championships, said even the English cue ace was backing the point format though he has not been asked to.
"Mike Russell has been playing for England and Qatar. He was not told to skip (the traditional format) but he supports the (point) format as well," he added.
Citing an example of the duration of the point format, he said, "I remember I defeated Peter Gichrist 4-3 in the quarter-finals (of the world championship). It did not take more than two hours."
