NBP National Snooker Championship cues off today

KARACHI: The long awaited NBP 46th National Snooker Championship 2021, originally planned to be held in the first quarter of the year, will finally cue off here at the NBP Sports Complex in Clifton on Friday (today).

According to the draws released by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), the 56 participating cueists have been divided equally in eight groups for the preliminary rounds at the end of which top two cueists from each group will advance to the knockout rounds, starting with pre-quarter-finals. The event, delayed by more than six months due to successive waves of Covid-19, will conclude on October 11.

Although heavy rains have been forecast in the city during the next few days, the PBSA functionaries didn’t foresee any problems in holding the championship matches in the indoor settings of the NBP Sports Complex.

There is Rs272,000 at stake with the winner to take home a handsome purse of Rs100,000. The runner-up will get Rs50,000. The losing semi-finalists, quarter-finalists and pre-quarter-finalists will receive Rs20,000, Rs10,000 and Rs4,000 each, respectively.

The highest break award carries a sum of Rs10,000.

Hamza Akbar and Abdul Sattar are the two wildcard entrants while there are 12 entries each from the four provinces and four slots have gone to Islamabad. The top 12 ranked cueists of last year have been given direct entries while half a dozen junior cueists are also being blooded in the mainstream arena.

Today’s fixtures:

Muhammad Sajjad (NBP) v Hamza Akbar (Pjb); Zubair Tahir (Pjb) v Saifullah (Pjb); Adil Khan (Bal) v Iftikhar Khan (Sindh); Muhammad Asif (NBP) v Abdul Sattar (Sindh); Muhammad Shahzad (Pjb) v Rambail Gul (KP); Munawar Khaliq (Isb) v Owaisullah (Pjb); Muhammad Bilal (Pjb) v Ahmad Shah (Bal); Shaikh Mudassir (Pjb) v Nadeem Gul (Pjb); Abdul Javed (Isb) v Imran Khan (KP); Shahid Aftab (Pjb) v Hammad Hassan (Pjb); Ahsan Ramzan (Pjb) v Aftab Baig (Bal); Aamir Sohail (KP) v Farrukh Usman (Sindh); Mubashir Raza (Pjb) v Taufeeq Memon (Sindh); Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir (Sindh) v Bahadur Khan (Bal); Saad Khan (KP) v Umair Haider (Pjb); Ahsan Javaid (Pjb) v Shah Khan (KP); Muhammad Ijaz (Pjb) v Umar Memon (Sindh); Hiskail Bilal (Bal) Imran Qamar (Pjb); Babar Masih (Pjb) v Jawed Ansari (Sindh); Haris Tahir (NBP) v M Yaqoob (KP); Asjad Iqbal (NBP) v Tanzeel Hussain (Bal); Naseem Akhtar (NBP) v Aamir Shahzad (KP); Muhammad Saleem (KP) v Ibrahim Khan (Bal); Faizan Ahmed (Sindh) v Sattar Khan (Isb).