Out-of-form Sajjad picked for inaugural IBSF World Team Cup

KARACHI: Muhammad Sajjad has been included in the Pakistan squad for the inaugural IBSF World Team Cup Snooker Tournament 2018 despite having failed to reach the knockout phase of the recent National Championship.

Sajjad, along with the trio of Muhammad Asif, Babar Masih and Asjad Iqbal, flew to Doha on Monday where the global event gets underway on Tuesday (today).According to the information made available by Munawwar Hussain Shaikh, Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) president, here on Monday, Sajjad would partner with Asjad in the Pakistan-2 team. Asif and Babar constitute the Pakistan-1 side.

“This new annual event is being launched under the auspices of the International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF) and the Asian Confederation of Billiards Sports (ACBS) and hosted by Qatar Billiards & Snooker Federation (QBSF). This team championship will be organised every year by the QBSF in collaboration with the IBSF and ACBS in order to provide more opportunities to the cueists,” the PBSA president said.

There will be 24 teams in this four-day event. They will be divided into eight groups of three teams each; two teams from each group will qualify for the last-16 round. The total prize money of the event will be $60,000, Munawwar said.

“As per the selection criteria of the IBSF and ACBS, Pakistan was invited to field two teams, by virtue of being the winner and the runner up of the IBSF World Team Championship 2017,” he revealed.When questioned by ‘The News’ about the criteria for the selection of the Pakistan squads, Munawwar said that the cueists were selected on the basis of their overall performance in the recent­ past.

He admitted that the loss of form of Sajjad was a cause of concern and the PBSA did consider the idea of replacing him but it was practically not possible to do it in the short time that was available.