World 6-Reds, Teams Snooker: Asif, Babar debarred as Bilal, Majid leave for Egypt

KARACHI: Pakistan’s chances of retaining the title in the IBSF World 6-Reds and Teams Snooker Championships 2018, starting later this week, were severely dented as defending champions Mohammad Asif and Babar Masih were not allowed to accompany teammates Muhammad Bilal and Muhammad Majid who proceeded to Egypt on Tuesday.

According to the information gathered by ‘The News’, Asif and Babar, who had emerged triumphant in the last year’s World Team Championship, was stopped by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) from participating in the upcoming global events for not having signed the central contract for the next year.

Neither of the two parties, administrators and cueists, were willing to share the clauses which were the bone of contention in the central contract.

“Our stance was simple. We had told the PBSA that our present contract was valid until December 31, 2018. We desired to sign a fresh contract for 2019 after going through it in detail on our return from Egypt later this month. We are still under contract with the PBSA,” said Asif, who won the IBSF world title in 2012, while talking to this correspondent here on Tuesday.

“We had come to Karachi on Monday afternoon to collect our air tickets for departure to Cairo. We remained in the PBSA office for quite some time but our point of view was not taken into consideration and we were ordered to return home instead of going to Egypt,” he added.

Babar said he felt heartbroken with the PBSA’s insistence on signing the next year’s contract before their departure. “I cannot tell you how much disappointed Asif and I are for not being able to go there (Egypt). We were the defending champions. We were confident of retaining the crown but we have been deprived of the opportunity. With a heavy heart we are returning to our homes instead of going to play for Pakistan and earn more laurels for the country,” he regretted in a brief conversation.

PBSA president Munawwar Hussain Shaikh said that it was the decision of the Association’s Executive Board not to bow to the demands of the cueists. “We prevailed over Bilal and Majid, who were also reluctant to sign the next year’s contract but Asif and Babar were not in a mood to do so despite being told that they won’t be allowed to participate in the World Team Championship if they didn’t sign the contract,” the PBSA president told ‘The News’.

Asked why the cueists were being pressurised to sign the contract for the next year at this time, he explained that the PBSA had to take such a stand in view of the bitterness caused on the eve of the National Snooker Championship at the start of this year. “The PBSA had sent the copies of the central contract for next year to the provincial associations in the middle of last month in order to allow the cueists ample time to go through it. It’s a normal practice to have the contracts renewed before the beginning of a new year,” Munawwar said.