ISLAMABAD The Pakistan Billiard and Snooker Association (PBSA) are likely to hire the services of a Thai coach for the two upcoming international assignments, Asian Games at Guangzhou and World snooker at Damascus.

“We have two or three Thailand coaches in mind but for that we need a Thai coach who can speak English as our players can only communicate in English with the Thai coach if hired,” PBSA President, Alamgir Sheikh told APP.

“We are in desperate need of a coach as there is not much time left for the Asian Games” Sheikh said.

Earlier the PBSA suffered a severe blow when the government refused to grant permission to an Indian coach, Sanjay Sawant, to train the cueists for the upcoming events.

“If we are unable to hire the foreign coach then we will look for the coach from Pakistan to train our players,” Sheikh said.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Yousuf, former world amateur snooker champion, has offered his services to take up coaching assignment of Pakistan team and swap his retirement from the game with coaching contract.

Yousuf, 58, the only player in the world to have won the World, Asian and World Masters titles, said he would be happy to take up the job in the larger interest of the country if approached.

“It will be an honour to serve the nation again,” he remarked.

The training of Pakistani cueists for the Asian Games and World Cup will begin at Islamabad from Oct 15. —APP