National Snooker gets under way today

Syed Khalid Mahmood

KARACHI: As many as 54 cueists from all over the country will be in action in the Jubilee Insurance 43rd National Snooker Championship 2018 which gets underway here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Monday.

Two cueists from Balochistan, Mahmood Khan and Ubaid Khan, were added to the list of participants at the eleventh hour by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA).

Upon the request of their provincial snooker association, we have decided to extend their quota to eight from six and therefore the number of participants in the Nationals has been increased to 54 from the earlier planned 52, Munawwar Hussain Shaikh, President, PBSA, informed The News on Sunday.

As far as the breakup of the 54 participants was concerned, the top 12 ranked cueists of the last year have been granted direct entry, eight cueists each have qualified from the provincial cups of Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Balochistan, three have qualified from the Islamabad Cup alongwith four top junior cueists and three are wild card entries.

The PBSA, in accordance with laid down procedures, has granted wild cards to Imran Shahzad, who recently defended his National Masters title successfully, Asif Toba and Muhammad Majid Ali, all of them from Punjab.

The participating cueists have been divided in eight groups for the preliminary rounds at the end of which the top two cueists from each group will advance to the knockout phase starting with the pre-quarter-finals on February 18. The event concludes with the final and the prize distribution ceremony on February 21.

Asjad Iqbal, Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Bilal, Shahid Aftab, Mubashir Raza, Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir, Khurram Hussain Agha and Babar Masih are the eight seeded cueists entering the competition, offering prize money of Rs 272,000.

The winner will collect Rs 100,000 and the runner-up to get Rs 50,000. The losing semifinalists will be receiving Rs 20,000 each while the losing quarter-finalists and the losing pre-quarter-finalists will be compensated with Rs 10,000 each and Rs 4,000 each respectively.

The highest break award will earn a purse of Rs 10,000 while every century break will be rewarded with an additional award of Rs 2,000. Monday’s fixtures: Muhammad Ahsan Javaid (Pjb) v Umair Alam (Sindh); Bahadur Khan (Bal) v Muhammad Abdullah (KP), Rambail Gul (KPK) v Saeed Ahmed (Bal); Khurram Hussain Agha (Sindh) v Imran Shahzad (Pjb); Babar Masih (Pjb) v Sharjeel Mahmood (KP); Abdul Sattar (Sindh) v Ahmed Shah (Bal); Muhammad Ijaz (Pjb) v Samiullah (Bal); Sohail Shahzad (Sindh) v Muhammad Sajjad (Pjb); Haris Tahir (Sindh) v Sultan Muhammad (Sindh); Asjad Iqbal (Pjb) v Ian Mark John (Sindh); Muhammad Asif (Pjb) v Sarbuland Khan (KPK); Shaikh Muhammad Mudassir v Muhammad Imran (KP); Muhammad Umar (Pjb) v Rashid Mahmood Abbasi (Isb); Jahangir Yar Muhammad (Bal) v Haider Ali (Pjb); Muhammad Naseem Akhtar (Pjb) v Muhammad Haris Nadeem (Sindh); Muhammad Bilal (Pjb) v Abdul Javaid (Pjb); Shahid Aftab (Pjb) v Fazal Umar Butt (Sindh); Usman Ahmed (Pjb) v Tariq Ali (Bal); Muhammad Shahbaz (Pjb) v Aakash Rafique (KP); Agha Bilawal (Sindh) v Aamir Sohail (KP); Musaddiq Mahmood (Isb) v Farhan Noor (Pjb).