Asjad, Masih picked for Asian Snooker Team Event

KARACHI: Mohammad Bilal, Mohammad Asif, Babar Masih and Asjad Iqbal will represent Pakistan in the 4th Asian Snooker Team Event 2016 and the 5th 6-Red Snooker Championship 2016 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later this month.

Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) president Alamgir Anwar Shaikh informed ‘The News’ here on Tuesday that the four cueists been selected on the basis of their performances in the recent past.

The two events will be staged at Abu Dhabi from May 18 to 26.

“The PBSA Board has made a couple of changes in the team from the one which participated in the Asian Snooker Championship at Doha last month. Babar Masih and Asjad Iqbal replace Mohammad Sajjad and Sohail Shahzad,” Alamgir said.

“Sohail, who had become a direct qualifier for the Asian Championship by having ended as the runner-up in the National Championship, was unable to reproduce his top form in the continental event. Sajjad, a former world number two, has also endured a lean patch of late,” the PBSA president said.

“Bilal and Asif have been retained because they fared well in Qatar before going down fighting in the knockout phase. Asjad and Masih have been included at the strength of their performance in the domestic events,” he added.