No pot of gold for Chitra

World champ still lacks funds for her England trip in quest to retain her title

MUMBAI: It’s almost a year since Chitra Magimairaj won the World Billiards in Cambridge, England, but still there is no recognition to her big achievement. The only acknowledgement for the graduate from Mount Carmel College in Bangalore was a cheque of Rs 10,000 from her state government.

But for the hockey and cricket afficianado turned billiards champion, she is jobless and sponsors are still a distant dream. “All hell broke loose when I won the world championship in Cambridge but that died off very soon,” says Chitra after winning her maiden nine-ball Pool National Championship at the Khar Gymkhana here on Tuesday.

Coming from an upper middle class family, Chitra has seen many and ups and downs in life. Her career often oscillated from agony to ecstasy. Her promising tenure as a state hockey player met with a premature end when she injured her right knee. That’s when her life took a turn for the better. “My life was devastated but thanks to Dr Anant Joshi who helped me to find my feet back though playing hockey was out of the question,” recalls Chitra.

A two-year long rehabilitation period started. And it had Chitra thinking about her alternative sports career. Golf and billiards were two options. Chitra chose billiards, because golf was expensive and moreover, she had access to tables at the ITI Sports Club with father Magimairaj being an ITI employee.

Though Chitra may not be a natural, her concentration skills make up for the huge adjustment between a highly physical game like hockey to the extremely sedate cuesports. “I try and learn from every mistake. I go into a match, not with sole aim of winning, but with the idea of improving every shot, how to get better each shot,” says the 33-year-old.

Her world champ status also would not have happened for lack of funds. “I was depressed and I almost called off the trip, but my brother Issai Vanan (a doctor in the US), stepped in to back me with the money.”

The circle is about to complete and Chitra still hasn’t figured out the financial aspects to retain her title when the World Championship will be held from March 31-April 6. But she is optimistic that the money (one lakh) will come from somewhere.