KARACHI: Fifty two cueists, including incumbent and four former champions, have been lined up for the country’s biggest cue-ball event, the Jubilee Insurance 43rd National Snooker Championship being held at Karachi Gymkhana from Feb 12 to 21.

Ace cueist Mohammad Sajjad laid his hands on the national title for the third time by getting the better of his pupil Asjad Iqbal in the last year’s final and will defend his crown.

The quartet who have previously annexed the national title include former world amateur snooker champion Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Bilal, Shahid Aftab and Khurram Agha.

The break-up of 52 participants envisaged top 12 of national ranking released after the third domestic event of the seniors, eight qualifiers apiece from Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, six qualifiers from Balochistan, three from Islamabad, four juniors — two under-18 and as many under-21 and three wildcards.

The wildcards includes former Pakistan No 1 Imran Shahzad, Asif Toba and Mohammad Majid Ali while the Islamabad trio comprised Musaddiq Malik, Noman Javed and Raja Rashid.

The junior quartet includes national under-18 champion Umer Khan, runner-up Shaikh Muda­ssir, under-21 runner-up M. Shah­baz and semi-finalist Usman Ahmed.

The details of the country’s premier snooker event of the game were announced by the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation (PBSF) president, Munawwar Hussain Shaikh, at a press briefing held at the Karachi Gymkhana on Wednesday.

He was flanked by managing director of Jubilee Insurance Tahir Ahmed, Karachi Gymkhana president Akbar Puri, PBSF officials Zulfiqar Ramzi, Irfan Motan, Shariq Vohra and Nisar Bhagat.

Speaking on the occasion, the PBSF chief announced Pakistan teams for the inaugural IBSF-ACBS World Team Championship being held at Doha from Feb 27 to March 2.

He informed that Pakistan has been honoured to field two outfits by virtue of being winner and runners-up of the last year’s IBSF team event.

Team I includes Babar Masih and Mohammad Asif while team 2 comprised Asjad Iqbal and Mohammad Sajjad.

According to him, 24 teams will vie for honours in the event which carries total prize money of US $ 60,000. The winning team gets US $ 15,000 while the runners-up receives US $ 7,000. Even the first round loser earns US $ 1,000.

He also named three-member Pakistan team for the ACBS under-21 snooker championship being held at Myanmar from March 18 to 24.

The trio includes national under-21 champion Mohammad Nasem Akhtar, runner-up Moha­mmad Shahbaz and Haris Tahir.

Answering question, he said negotiations with sponsors were underway for the launch of Pakistan Snooker League sometime this year.

Tahir Ahmed in his speech reiterated Jubilee Insurance’s support to the game.

The KG president Akbar Puri, whose father Mazhar Iqbal Puri, was a former hierarchy of the then PBSA, assured to carry forward the legacy of his deceased father.

Meanwhile, the event carries total prize money of Rs2,72,000 with winner getting Rs100,000 and runner-up Rs50,000.

Besides the total purse, the cueists will earn Rs2,000 per century break.

According to draws, the participants have been divided into eight groups and top two will propel into knockout pre quarterfinals on completion of league matches.

The winner and runner-up of the event will qualify for the 34th Asian Snooker Championship being held at Tabriz, Iran from April 22 to 28.

Groups:

A: Asjad Iqbal (Punjab), Sheikh M. Mudassir (Punjab), Mohammad Jahangir (Balochistan), Mohammad Imran (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Haider Ali (Punjab), Ian Mark John (Sindh).

B: Mohammad Asif (Punjab), Umer Khan (Punjab), Mohammad Naseem Akhtar (Punjab), Raja Rashid (Islamabad), Haris Nadeem (Sindh), Srabuland Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).

C: Mohammad Bilal (Punjab), Usman Ahmed (Punjab), Agha Bilawal (Sindh), Tariq Ali (Balochistan), Amir Sohail (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Abdul Javaid (Punjab).

D: Shahid Aftab (Punjab), Mohammad Shahbaz (Punjab), Musaddiq Malik (Islamabad), Akash Rafiq (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Farhan Noor (Punjab), Umer Butt (Sindh).

E: Mubashir Raza (Punjab), Mohammad Ishtiaq (Sindh), Bahadur Baloch (Balochistan), Mohammad Faizan (Sindh), Mohammad Abdullah (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Qadeer Bhatti (Punjab), Mohammad Majid Ali (Punjab).

F: Zulfiqar A. Qadir (Sindh), Mohammad Ahsan Javaid (Punjab), Rambel Gul (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Awaisullah (Punjab), Saeed Ahmed (Balochistan), Umer Alam (Sindh), Mohammad Asif Toba (Punab).

G: Khurram H. Agha (Sindh), Abdul Sattar (Sindh), Sohail Shahzad (Sindh), Amir Shahzad (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Mohammad Sajjad (Punjab), Ahmed Shah (Balochistan), Imran Shahzad (Punjab).

H: Babar Masih (Punjab), Mohammad Ijaz (Punjab), Haris Tahir (Punjab), Noman Javed (Islamabad), Sultan Mohammad (Sindh), Samiullah (Balochistan), Sharjeel Mahmood (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2018