NBP Ranking Snooker begins next week

KARACHI: Former world champion Mohammad Asif will be defending his title in the 9th NBP Ranking Snooker Championship 2017 which gets underway here at the NBP Sports Complex in Clifton next week.

The details about the eight-day event were announced by Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) president Munawwar Hussain Shaikh at a media briefing here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Thursday.

It was revealed that a total of 35 cueists, divided into eight groups, would be taking part in the preliminary rounds. Apart from the 31 top-ranked cueists, four juniors have been allowed entry into the event which offers prize money of Rs150,000.

The winner will get a purse of Rs60,000, while the runner-up will receive Rs35,000. The losing semi-finalists will get Rs15,000 each, while the losing quarter-finalists will be compensated with Rs5,000 each. The highest break award will be Rs5,000.

The qualifying round matches will be best-of-seven-frame contests. The pre-quarter-finals and the quarter-finals will be best-of-nine-frame encounters.

The semi-finals will be best-of-11-frame duels. The final will be a best-of-15-frame affair.The preliminary round will be spread over four days.Top seeded Mohammad Sajjad has been drawn in the Group A with Mohammad Ishtiaq, Agha Bilawal and Mohammad Naseem Akhtar.

The Group B features second seed Asjad Iqbal with Mubashir Raza, Aamir Sohail and Shahid Shafiq.Third seed Khurram Hussain Agha leads the pack in the Group C in the presence of Abdul Sattar, Munawwar Khaliq and Haris Tahir.  The Group D is composed of fourth seed Nadir Miran, Imran Shahzad, Majid Ali and Shah Khan.

Fifth seed Shahid Aftab has been drawn in the Group E with Mohammad Ijaz, Sultan Mohammad and Mohammad Saquib.

Sixth seed Sohail Shahzad, defending champion Mohammad Asif, Abu Saim, Aakash Rafique and Umar Farooq constitute the Group F.

The Group G has seventh seed Ahsan Javed, Babar Masih, Asif Toba, Sharjeel Mahmood and Mohammad Rafiq. The Group H comprises eighth seed Shahram Changezi, Mohammad Bilal, Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir, Mohammad Faizan and Shaikh Mohammad Mudassar.