"I've been training very hard, despite my own challenges," Bilal told The Express Tribune, as he left for Poland on Monday. PHOTO COURTESY: PBSA
KARACHI: Pakistan's ACBS World Snooker Championship bronze medallist Muhammad Bilal will be representing the country at the 2017 World Games in Wroclaw, Poland.
Bilal left for the event with manager Shabbir Hussain and he believes that he will be winning another accolade for the country in Poland.
"I've been training very hard, despite my own challenges," Bilal told The Express Tribune, as he left for Poland on Monday.
The cueist has been nominated by the Asian body as the semi-finalist at the World Championships in Doha. "We'll be seeing professional players in Poland too and my only target is to win a medal and give my best. I feel confident in my abilities and I just know whatever happens in a match, I don't want to give up.”
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The 30-year-old from Mandi Bahauddin has had a tough time off the snooker circuit too, despite assuring medals for Pakistan in the Asian 6-Red Snooker Championships earlier this month as well.
"I've trained for a whole week just for the World Games in Islamabad," said Bilal. "Because there really isn't much time or energy left in me to train and work at home as I have to run my own little snooker parlour so that I can earn enough money for the expenses of my family."
The 2016 National Snooker Championship winner said that so far, despite the success, he still has no job and that alone can be enough for him to give up the sport.
"It gets tough,” he said. “I go back home and all I can think about is how am I going to pay the rent, and the bills, so I try to run this little snooker parlour in my home town with two tables, but it really doesn't get me much money. I'm afraid if this situation continues ultimately my game will suffer. I want to improve my skills further but how can anyone do that with the stress and pressure to put the bread on the table."
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The cueist said that he learnt the most by watching different players and then decided to represent Punjab, while the glory at the national circuit only came to him last year.
"It was a tough road as I lost a lot in the years before 2016, but I didn't give up hope, that's my only secret to success," said Bilal.
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