Nitin Kumar once again took the plaudits at the India Qualifier for the World Cup of Darts, set to begin on June 12 in Frankfurt, Germany. Nitin’s partner at the World Cup will be Mohan Kumar Goel, who is set to make his debut for India at the professional darts circuit. Mohan said, “Thanks to the Indian Darts Council for giving me this opportunity. It has been my dream to represent India at the world stage and getting through this qualifier gives me a chance to do that. Being able to team up with Nitin is something I am really excited about.”
The India qualifier was held at the Bengal Rowing Club, where two tournaments were happening simultaneously. With a 25-board set up, a total of 131 darters showed up with an aim to shoot their best shot. The India Qualifiers took place on April 26 and 27 in a three-round format, where the top two would be selected to represent the country in Frankfurt on the basis of tallied points over the three rounds. The other tournament was the BRC Summer Darts Open. And it was Nitin Kumar who came up trumps in both tournaments.
Speaking to My Kolkata at the India qualifier, Kumar said, “I can see the quality rising and I am hopeful that someone here can beat me soon, because that would really get my competitive edge going. It was a pleasure to see the youngsters who turned up. I can see India having a bright darting future and it won’t take too long for us to catch up to the rest of the world.”
The Indian Darts Council has been promoting the sport throughout the country in an effort to build India’s game at the world stage. Whenever Indians like Nitin Kumar travel to play abroad, they have to fund their own trips. This time around, Devesh Srivastava, the president of the IDC, raised Rs 1.36 lakh to help the players with travel expenses. Devesh spoke about India’s darting future, saying, “The future looks bright. We have a lot of youngsters taking interest and we will soon have qualifiers for the JDC World Cup for Juniors. We are on the right track and soon the results will show the hard work we have been putting in behind the scenes.”
Nancy Ambrose, the president of the Malaysian Darts Association, has been associated with darts as a player as well as an administrator for 35 years. Speaking about the rise of Indian darts and how it stands in comparison to her home country, she said “Indian darts is definitely on the right track but there is a vast difference between Nitin, who has been on the international stage, and the rest. In a few years that gap will be close and India will be in a place to compete better. Malaysia is very different, we have a larger player pool and there are tournaments every week, it's difficult to do that with India because the best players are spread all over the country and they each have a different profession — which is their priority.”
Limatoshi, a DSP in the anti-corruption department of Nagaland Police, took up darts in 2012. He doesn’t get much time to practice, but he has been participating in India qualifiers in other states. This was his first time in Kolkata. Lima went all the way to the finals of the third round and he would have to beat India’s best to make the cut for the World Cup. He finished third, but expressed his joy saying, “If you asked me whether I was confident of making it this far I would have probably said no, but coming third in this tournament tells me that with more practice I can play for India at the international stage, and that is my goal now.”
