Sajjad look to defend title in National Snooker

KARACHI: National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) came to the rescue of the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) whom they presented a sponsorship cheque of Rupees four million here at the Karachi Club Annexe on Saturday.

Mudassir Inamullah Khan, SVP/Divisional Head, NBP, and Kamran Khalid, SVP/Wing Head NBP, did the honours on behalf of the bank by presenting the sponsorship cheque to Jawed Karim, President, PBSA, at the end of the media briefing. Ali Asghar Valika, Patron-in-Chief of PBSA, along with other office-bearers of the association were also present on the occasion.

The financial support provided by the bank to the cash-starved PBSA will enable the cue sports body to revive their domestic events and all was set to hold the NBP 47th National Snooker Championship 2023 here at the NBP Sports Complex in Clifton from December 28 which will continue until January 3.

The details about the seven-day event, carrying enhanced prizemoney of over half a million rupees, were unveiled by the PBSA’s Senior Vice President, Abdul Qadir Memon.

It was announced that the winner will now be presented a handsome purse of Rupees two lacs while the runner-up will be receiving Rupees one lac. The losing semifinalists will be getting Rupees fifty thousand each and the losing quarter-finalists to be compensated with Rupees twenty five thousand each.

Defending champion Muhammad Sajjad will also be the top seed for the event with the young sensation Ahsan Ramzan seeded second. Babar Masih, Haris Tahir, Sahaid Aftab, Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir, Muhammad Faizan and Awaisullah Munir are the other seeded cueists in the competition.

The 32 participants have been divided equally in eight groups for the preliminary rounds at the end which the top two cueists from each group will be advancing to the knockout phase starting with the pre-quarter-finals.