National Snooker begins today

KARACHI: The NBP 47th National Snooker Championship 2023, carrying record prize money, will cue off here at the NBP Sports Complex in Clifton on Wednesday (today).

Tournament Director, Naved Kapadia, who is also Secretary of the Sindh Billiards & Snooker Association (SBSA), confirmed here on Tuesday evening that all the 32 participating cueists had reported to him upon their arrival in the city and there will be no dropouts in the seven-day event being sponsored by National Bank of Pakistan.

The 47th edition of the Nationals will be offering the highest-ever prize money in history which will be in excess of Rupees half a million. The champion will now become richer by Rupees two lacs while the runner-up will be collecting Rupees one lac. The losing semi finalists will be getting Rupees fifty thousand each and the losing quarter-finalists will be receiving Rupees twenty five thousand each.

Muhammad Sajjad, the defending champion, will also be the top seed for the event with Ahsan Ramzan seeded second. Babar Masih, Haris Tahir, Sahaid Aftab, Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir, Muhammad Faizan and Awaisullah Munir being the other seeded cueists entering the fray.

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.

As far as the draws of the championship are concerned, top seeded Muhammad Sajjad (Pjb) has been placed in the Group A alongwith Shah Namat (Isb), Jahanzaib Jahangir (Bal) and Muhammad Bilal (Pjb) while the Group B comprises of second seed Ahsan Ramzan (Pjb), Sirbuland Khan (KPK), Ali Hamza (Sindh) and Rana Irfan (Pjb).

The Group C is headed by third seed Babar Masih (Pjb) in the presence of Muhammad Naseem Akhtar (Pjb), Akash Rafiq (KPK) and Jawed Ansari (Sindh) while fourth seed Haris Tahir (Pjb) leads the pack in Group D, also having Abdul Sattar (Sindh), Wasim Abbas (Pjb) and Zaib Khan (Bal).