KARACHI: After passing his prime since capturing the world amateur snooker title at Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2012, veteran cueist Mohammad Asif finally made his appearance in three tournaments of the snooker Q School in England but failed to make any impact, Dawn has learnt.

Asif, 37, was among the five Pakistani cueists who participated in the contests including former Asian champion Hamza Akbar, who is playing the pro circuit for the last four years. The other three cueists include England-based Haider Ali, Abdul Raheem and Yasir Nadeem.

This is for the first time that five Pakistani cueists tried their luck by in order to qualify for the pro circuit.

Introduced in 2011, snooker Q School has become the most accessible gateway from the amateur set-up into the higher echelons of the sport.

Three Q School tournaments spread over a fortnight saw 16 amateurs graduating into the main Tour.

It is pertinent to mention that after Asif’s World Cup triumph seven years back, a private enterpreneur doled out two million rupees following the cueist’s request to feature in pro circuit.

The Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation (PBSF) had accorded necessary permission to Asif to feature in the event. Besides Asif and Hamza, the other three players don’t need permission as they are not ranking players, the PBSF President Munawwar Shaikh told Dawn.

Results available here show that in the first event, Asif won the first round against Hong Kong’s Chau Hon Man 4-1 before crashing out in the next losing to Au Chi-wei, also from Hong Kong, 2-4 in the second round.

In the next competition, Asf made his exit in the very first round while in the last event he could not go beyond the third round.

To a question the former world champion said he had spent around Rs 0.6m from his pocket that includes participation fee of 1000 pounds, return air ticket and accommodation.

Hamza, who is in his best nick, reached last-16 in the first Q School before getting eliminated.

He defeated Matthew Roberts of the Wales 4-0 in first round. In the next, he carved out 4-1 victory over Indian Lucky Vatnani. Hamza sent Matthew Couch of England packing 4-0 to sneak into last-32. His next success was against Ben Hancorn of England whom he defeated 4-1 to propel into pre quarters where he went down 3-4 to Englishman Sean Maddocks.

Raheem, 20, went down 2-4 to more then double of his age Stephen Kershaw of England in the very first round of the first event. After getting a first round bye in the second contest, he suffered 2-4 loss at the hands of John Welsh of England in the second round. In the third event he met his fate in the first round being knocked out straight 4-0 by Lukas Kleckars of Germany.

Making his second appearance since 2015, Yasir lost 2-4 to 16-year-old Lei Peifan of China 2-4 in the first round of the first event.

Similarly, he lost 2-4 to England’s Matthew Glasby in first round in second Q School. In the last he fell prey 1-4 to Jeff Cundy of England in the first round.

The 36-year-old Haider suffered loss in all three events in the first rounds.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2019