KARACHI: The third edition of the Jubilee Insurance Ranking Snooker Championship 2018 will get under way here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Tuesday (today).
The 24 top cueists of the country will be vying for the top honour. The media launch of the one-week event was held here on Monday in which the salient features were shared by Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) president Munawwar Hussain Shaikh and co-chairman Alamgir Anwar Shaikh.
It was announced that the top two cueists of the country in the national ranking chart, to be issued after this event, would represent the country in the IBSF World Snooker Championship 2018 scheduled to be staged in Myanmar later this year.
The PBSA has decided to retain 12 cueists for the next year’s National Championship whereas the remaining slots will be filled on the basis of the performances in the provincial cup tournaments.
Tahir Ahmed, Managing Director, Jubilee General Insurance, reckoned that snooker has now become the most popular sport in the country, after cricket. He described the PBSA as the best performing national sports body on the basis of its performance over the past couple of decades.
Muhammad Asif (Punjab), top seed and defending champion, has been placed in the Group A in the company of eighth seed Asjad Iqbal (Punjab), Sohail Shahzad (Sindh), Asif Toba (Punjab), Agha Bilawal (Sindh) and Sirbuland Khan (KP).
Second seed Babar Masih (Punjab) and seventh seed Aakash Rafique (KPK) feature in the Group B with Khurram Hussain Agha (Sindh), Sharjeel Mahmood (KP), Naseem Akhtar (Punjab) and Muhammad Shahbaz (Punjab).
The Group C comprises third seed Majid Ali (Punjab), sixth seed Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir (Sindh), Rambail Gul (KP), Ahsan Javaid (Punjab), Abdul Sattar (Sindh) and Umair Alam (Sindh).
The Group D has fourth seed Muhammad Bilal (Punjab), fifth seed Muhammad Ijaz (Punjab), Sultan Muhammad (Sindh), Shahid Aftab (Punjab), Haris Tahir (Punjab) and Ali Haider (Punjab).