Sajjad in Pak squad for World Team Snooker

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 recently held Jubilee Insurance 43rd National Snooker Championship 2018 at the Karachi Gymkhana.

Sajjad, alongwith the trio of Muhammad Asif, Babar Masih and Asjad Iqbal, has flown to Doha, Qatar, on Monday where the global event will be getting underway on Tuesday (today).

According to the information made available by Munawwar Hussain Shaikh, President, Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), here on Monday, Sajjad will be partnered by Asjad in the Pakistan-2 team while the duo of Asif and Babar will 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 Qatar Billiards & Snooker Federation (QBSF). This team championship will be organized every year by the QBSF in collaboration with the IBSF and ACBS in order to provide more opportunities to the cueists,” the PBSA President informed.

“This inaugural four-day event will be participated by 24 teams which shall be divided into eight groups of three teams each; two teams from each group shall qualify for the last 16 round. The total prize money of the event will be US$ 60000,” he added

“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,” the PBSA President revealed.

When questioned by ‘The News’ about the criteria for the selection of the Pakistan squads, Munawwar Shaikh said that the cueists were selected at the strength of their overall performance in the recent past.

He admitted that the loss of form of Sajjad in the Nationals 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 extremely short time that was available.