EMERGENCE of prodigal cueist Hamza Akbar as Asian champion and his subsequent debut in the pro-circuit was the silver-lining of Pakistan snooker in the preceding year.

April 30, 2015 turned out to be yet another red-letter day when talented Hamza stunned Indian supremo Pankaj Advani in the fully stretched final by 7-6 frames to annex the Asian title. By virtue of being Asian champion, he also qualified for the pro-circuit thus becoming the first Pakistani to do so. Mohammad Asif and Shahram Changezi also competed in the 31st Asian spectacle.

The title also helped Hamza emulate the feat of veteran world amateur snooker champion Mohammad Yousuf, who won the Asian crown at home in 1998.

Those who follow the game understand that beating Advani, who had numerous world titles under his belt, was a Herculean task which the young Pakistani had achieved. Not deterred with the defeat, Advani named two more world titles to his name later in the year– the IBSF 6-Reds where he accounted for Chinese Yan Bingtao 6-2 (37-21, 57-0, 32-29, 0-66, 6-38, 48-0, 75-0, 40-28) in Karachi followed by the IBSF 15-Reds where he subdued another Chinese Zhao Xintong 8-6 (117-6, 75-16, 29-68, 63-23, 87-1, 16-72, 110-13, 113-1, 52-65, 13-84, 77-36, 14-126, 26-82, 116-24) at Hurghada in Egypt.

Advani had to wait for 12 years to recapture the15-Reds snooker title. His previous success came against the then Pakistan cueist Saleh Mohammad, now settled in Afghanistan, whom he routed 11-5 at Jiangming, China, in 2003. In between, he did reached the final once in 2010 where he lost to Thai cueist Dechawat Poomjaeng 7-10 at Syria.

Pakistani quartet — Asif, Mohammad Sajjad, Abdul Sattar and Shahram — that featured in the world snooker championship at Hurghada faded away one by one after making it to the knockout round.

2012 world champion Asif reached up to the pre quarters (last-16) round before making exit while his compatriots Sajjad, losing finalist of Bangalore event in 2014, Shahram and Sattar went down earlier.

Earlier, by successfully organising the 18-nation World 6-Reds and Team Event in August — men’s women’s and master’s — Pakistan completed staging of all versions of the game at home with the exceptions of juniors.

Pakistani cueists could only win two silver (men’s and master’s team events) and three bronze medals (two in men’s 6-Reds and one in men’s team event).

Pakistani cueists — Hamza, Shahram, Asif and Sajjad — featured in the third Asian team event and fourth 6Reds snooker championship at Kish Island in Iran in May. Both the Pakistan teams lost to hosts Iran A and B teams in the semis.

In the 6-Reds, Asif and Hamza topped their respective groups while Sajjad and Shahram were placed third respectively. However, all the four made it to the knockout stage. Asif and Hamza crashed out in the pre quarters while Sajjad and Shahram made their exit in the quarters.

The trio of Asif, Asjad and Sajjad also travelled to Bangkok in Sept to compete in the Sangsom 6-Reds world championship.

As for the juniors, Mohammad Faheem beat Abdul Raheem 6-4 in the final to win the seventh national junior under-21 snooker championship in the beginning of the year.

The top two along with Amir Tariq made their exposure in the 16th Asian under-21 snooker championship at Beijing in April.

Raheem and Saqib also took part in the inaugural IBSF under-18 snooker championship held at Saint Petersburg, Russia, in Oct.

The former went down to Hong Kong’s Ming Tung Chan 1-4 in the semis while the latter suffered straight 0-3 loss to Israel’s Amir Nardeia in the last 32-stage.

Asif, meanwhile, made his mark on the national circuit winning two out of three ranking titles after faltering in the preceding 40th national’s.

He overcome Sajjad 8-7 to win the NBP Cup and then brushed aside Mohammad Majid Ali 8-4 to win the third ranking event.

Hamza and Shahram put up a resolute performance by making it to the finals of the country’s premier snooker championship where the former returned with flying colours to recapture the title. He sent his opponent packing 8-4 in the final.

Only three national ranking tournaments could take place instead of four during the year.

2016 is the election year of the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation (PBSF) and the incumbent president and secretary completes eight year in office.

Sindh Snooker Academy: The proposed Sindh Snooker Academy failed to see the light of the day as another year passed.

The land measuring 2210 square yards was allotted to the PBSF for constructing the academy by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) in Sept 2012. It is located on the Kashmir Road/Jail Road intersection.

Since then, only boundary wall has been constructed in the last three years.

It would be wise that instead of hosting any international event at home in 2016 energies and resources should be diverted to complete the project.

It is pertinent to mention that following a tiff between the PBSF and the Karachi Club, the former has to pay handsome money to hold an event at local hotel.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2016