NBP Snooker C’ship prize money enhanced

KARACHI: The return of Iqbal Qasim as sports chief of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and the increment in the winners’ purse of the annual event highlighted the media launch of the 10th edition of NBP Ranking Snooker Championship 2018 held here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Thursday.

The details about the championship, to be staged at the NBP Sports Complex in Clifton, from August 5 to 13, were revealed by Munawwar Hussain Shaikh, Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association’s (PBSA) president.

He was handed over the sponsorship cheque of Rs1.3 million by Shaukat Mahmood Khatak, NBP’s Executive Vice President, on the occasion. Iqbal, who had retired from the bank after serving the sports division for a couple of decades, has been brought back by the management. Alamgir Anwar Shaikh, PBSA’s Co-Chairman, said Iqbal’s return augured well for cue sports. “We are confident that greater support will be extended in his new tenure,” he said.

Iqbal promised more facilities for snooker at the NBP Sports Complex. He vowed to continue supporting cue sports. The winner of the championship will get Rs100,000. The prize money in the nine-day event will be Rs185,000.

The runner-up will receive Rs40,000, while the losing semi-finalists will get Rs10,000 each and the losing quarter-finalists will be given Rs5,000 each. The highest break award carries a purse of Rs5,000.

Besides raising the number of participants from 32 to 40, the PBSA, upon the request of the cueists, has increased their daily allowance. Each of them will get Rs2,500 per day instead of Rs 2,000.

The contestants have been divided in eight groups for the preliminary rounds whose matches will be spread over five days.The winners and the runners-up of each group will qualify for the knockout rounds, starting with the pre-quarter-finals.

The league matches will be best-of-seven-frame contests; the quarter-finals best-of-nine-frame; the semi-finals best-of-11-frame; and the final best-of-15-frame contest. As in the past, the semi-finals and the final will be telecast live on Geo Super, the premier sports television channel of the country.