Pak players leave for IBSF World U16 Boys Snooker Championship

KARACHI: A three-member Pakistan squad will be flying out to Russia on Sunday (tomorrow) to take part in the IBSF World Under-16 Boys Snooker Championships 2019 starting there next week.

Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) president Munawwar Hussain Shaikh informed ‘The News’ here on Friday that Hamza Ilyas and Umar Khan would participate in the event, accompanied by Shabbir Hussain Daruwala, an international referee.

The three will leave Karachi early on Sunday morning and reach Russia after a brief stopover in Dubai. The tournament, being staged in the Russian city of Tyumen, will get under way on August 19 and continue until August 24. The IBSF World Under-16 Girls Snooker Championships 2019 will take place at the same venue simultaneously.

The PBSA president was hopeful of fine performance from the Pakistani cueists. “Both our teenagers are leaving the shores of the country with realistic hopes of bringing home glories. They are adequately talented and high on confidence. They have the potential and the exposure in the World Under-16 Championship will be a great learning curve for them,” Munawwar added.

Pakistan’s youngsters have had the knack of performing creditably in the global events. Naseem Akhtar had won the World Under-18 Snooker Championship a couple of years ago. He annexed the crown in Beijing in 2017.

Hamza Akbar, a two-time national snooker champion, clinched his first major international title at the age of 22 when he famously overshadowed India’s Pankaj Advani in the final of Asian Snooker Championship in Kuala Lumpur in April 2015.