Shahram to feature in Snooker World Cup

KARACHI: Shahram Changezi and Hamza Akbar will represent Pakistan in the World Cup Snooker Tournament 2017 to be held next month.

Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) president Munawwar Hussain Shaikh announced here on Thursday that the Islamabad-based Shahram has been nominated as the amateur cueist from Pakistan with Hamza, who has already qualified by virtue of being a main Tour player of the World Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (WPBSA). They will represent the country in the World Cup to be staged in China from July 3 to 9.

Shahram and Hamza will be up against 23 other two-member teams who will be in action during the one-week global event.

According to the details provided by the organisers, the 24 participating teams will be divided equally into four groups for the preliminary rounds and they will be playing five league matches. At the end of the first round, the top two cueists from all four groups will advance to the knockout stage, starting with quarter-finals.

The World Cup Snooker Tournament 2017, besides allowing the opportunity to Pakistan’s Shahram and Hamza to lock horns with some of the top performing cueists in the international circuit, offers them a chance of getting their share from a rich purse of $700,000.

The winning team will be receiving prize money as high as $200,000 while the runners-up will be getting $100,000. The losing semi-finalists will be awarded $60,000 each, while the losing quarter-finalists will be compensated with $40,000 each.

There will be cash rewards for every contesting team with those finishing at the bottom of the table also getting $7,500 each.