The tension might have been at fever pitch as the crucial pre-quarterfinal battle between Central Railway Mechanical Institute’s (CRMI) Sunil Ghadge and Khar Gymkhana’s Deepak Khubchandani intensified at the PJ Hindu Gymkhana on Tuesday. It wasn’t only the players at the centre though who seemed to have been engulfed by the nerves that were rampant in the air.

CRMI skipper Joseph Thomas had failed to stop the formidable Yasin Merchant in their opening clash earlier in the day and he sat restlessly on the sidelines watching and hoping for his teammate’s success—with every shot in the centre having an obvious effect to the expression on his face. And it was only when Ghadge eventually clinched a thriller against Khubchandani that a massive air of relief returned to Thomas’s face.

“I was very disappointed with my own performance against Merchant. I knew I could not beat him but I did not expect to lose 34-200,” said Thomas.

Renowned for his managing skills, Thomas has come a long way from his days as a marker to now leading the CRMI side. “I had joined the institute to learn how to become a marker in 1980 and 16 years later in 1996 I became the captain,” informed Thomas who doubles up as a technician at the Central Railway workshop near Parel.

“My life changed since I first joined the institute,” says the son of a former football coach from the same institute. Thomas insisted that it was a result of his sheer fate that he got introduced to the world of cue-sports.

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