By Sandip G
Chennai, Aug 1 : Even as cue sports is getting increasingly professional, when quirks and theatrics are met with scorn than snort, their visages grumpier by the day, junior national champion Lalrina Renthlei is a throwback to the more relaxed epoch when cue sports had more recreational than competitive value.
He can be jargoned a “banger”, but he cares less.
His tussle with Himanshu Jain best exemplifies this contrast. Jain, privileged with his Bangalore upbringing, is a cloud of meditation.
He broods over every move, probes angles and predates his shots. Conversely, Renthlei would sniff, twitch and fidget at the table, while careering around it with a near manic zeal and speed.
Yet, when he set himself to pot balls and builds a break, no other junior player can have shown a greater natural aptitude, nor can any have taken more delight in the moment of victory. Not that he is casual about the sport, but there is a degree of laid backness, which ought not be mistaken for slackness.
It’s just his disposition; it is the way he is.
He revels in taking the attack to the opposition; he reviles safety play, without condemning it.
“Different players approach the game differently, and I play the game that suites me most. It’s my instinct to be aggressive and curbing it won’t work,” affirmed Renthlei, who has also represented Mizoram in national basketball championship (was the youngest in the Pondicherry nationals). 
As is often the case with most cueists, a series of ankle and shoulder injuries prompted his tryst with snooker.
“I was always interested in pool. It was a fad in the last decade. But many pool parlours acquired an unsavory reputation as a haven for drug peddlers, and the government banned them in 2004. So I played basketball and football in the while,” he said.
However, Rina, as his friends call him, secretly kept his passion for snooker burning. Much of what Rina learnt was self taught, although he admits he got help from a Steve Davis, multiple pool world champion, coaching DVD provided by then Mizoram Sports Minister Zodintluanga.
“He presented me a video cassette when I won a junior championship, and I converted that to DVD. It contained the basic coaching techniques and I watched it over and over again,” he said.
The scenario is rosier in Mizoram, with its endearingly blue skies and transcendently picturesque locale. “The snooker and billiards association has kicked back to life and they have a few tables there. So I was able to practice since 2009,” he said. The five-year hiatus, though, hardly affected his game.
“Surprisingly, I picked off from where I had left. Initially I struggled a bit with sponsorships, and even though I got a few job offers, I declined because I can’t move out of my State. My family needs me. That’s my priority. Even if I don’t get sponsorship I’ll continue to play. Whether its life or sport, I’m just focusing on the present,” he said.
The 20-year-old has only one grouse — he has to be content practicing with himself. Of course, he has Steve Davis for company, and the hill and the skies.
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