Babar tops national rankings

KARACHI: Babar Masih has become the top ranked cueist of the country by virtue of winning the recently held Jubilee Insurance Cup Ranking Snooker Championship.

According to the latest ranking chart, announced by Naved Kapadia, Tournament Director, Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), here on Thursday, Babar, ranked second previously, has now moved to the top position.

Hailing from the city of Rawalpindi, Babar was in great form throughout the year and now he is all set to represent the country in the IBSF World Snooker Championship.Muhammad Asif, a former world champion, fell to the second place in the national rankings. He lost the final against Babar in the Jubilee Ranking Cup.

Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir, one of the top cueists of Karachi, jumped to the third position from the sixth place. Majid Ali slipped to the fourth place from the third spot.Muhammad Bilal’s downward journey continued after another unimpressive show in the last event. He went down to the fifth position from the fourth.

Asif Toba, coming from the town of Toba Tek Singh, earned huge ranking points on the basis of his wonderful performance in the last tournament. He came up to the sixth position from the 16th place.

Sharjeel Mahmood and Shahid Aftab are now ranked seventh and eighth, respectively, which make them automatic qualifiers for the next year’s National Championship.Muhammad Ijaz, who had leapfrogged in the national snooker rankings by winning the 10th NBP Ranking Cup Snooker Championship, slumped to the 11th position from the fifth slot.

Unsurprisingly, six of the top eight cueists belong to Punjab. Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir is the lone cueist from Sindh in the elite list which also features Sharjeel Mahmood of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

KPK has greater representation in the rankings between 9 and 16, having Rambail Gul (9th), Aakash Rafique (10th) and Sirbuland Khan (16th).Sultan Muhammad (14th) is the only other cueist from Sindh in the top 16 in which three more cueists are from Punjab: Haris Tahir (12th), Asjad Iqbal (13th) and Muhammad Shahbaz (15th).