ISLAMABAD Asjad Iqbal lifted his first national title when he won the National Bank Ranking Snooker Championship, defeating Mohammad Asif 8-5 in a thrilling six-hour encounter played at the Pakistan Sports Board snooker hall on Wednesday. Speaking with Dawn after notching the top position on the national ranking table, Asjad, 19, said “Passion for the game and the circumstances at home gave me the drive to excel at this level. My father is a vendor in the fruit and vegetable market in Sargodha and managing the house is a very tough job because life is not easy.”
For Asjad, therefore, the win on Wednesday brought good fortune. To begin with, he pocketed Rs 50,000 as winner and, immediately afterwards, he was offered a job by Federal Sports Minister Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani who directed the player to contact the National Bank for a job.
Asjad lost the first four frames 44-61, 47-75, 27-72, 53-60 against Asif, 30, belonging to Toba Tek Singh. “Asjad played well and did not loose confidence which made his job easy. I will keep on improving myself,” said Asif, runner-up of the event.
Asjad made a good comeback winning the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth frames - 82-23, 60-58, 77-09, 68-63, 75-41, 83-36.
Asif, who has lost vision of one eye, focused hard in the eleventh frame winning it 66-48, however, Asjad won the last two frames 57-53 and 83-31.
Asjad claimed “I am confident to win other such events. The snooker association should give us the coaches and we will give them the much needed better results in international tournaments.”
The emerging snooker player said that he intends to marry after winning the World Snooker Championship.
Asjad had recently appeared in the World Junior Snooker Championship held in March in India and also featured in U-21 Snooker Championship event in 2009 losing the pre-quarter finals of both the events.
“My next aim is to create a stir in the upcoming Asian Championship slated to be held in Thailand in May,” he said.
Commenting over the sponsorship aspect and lack of funding, he said that “life back home is very tough. I am playing in local club based in Satellite Town, Sargodha and they have allowed me to play free frames which helped me a lot otherwise I may never be able to feature in a national or international event.”
Former Test cricketer Iqbal Qasim and some officials of the Pakistan Billiard and Snooker Association also graced the occasion.
