KARACHI, Nov 24: A record 276 cueists have registered themselves for the Sindh Cup snooker championship which starts at Aly’s Snooker Parlor from Dec 8 with top eight qualifying for the national championship.

The majority of the participants are from Karachi and players failing to pay the fee after Eid-ul-Fitr will have their entries scratched. The event will be played on knock-out basis and all the seeded players may get byes upto third round in some cases.

The winner will receive Rs 32,000, runner-up Rs 15,000, and losing semifinalist Rs 2000 each.

Kashif Khan of Sindh Police will defend his title. Other prominent player participating in the championship are last year’s losing finalist Muhammad Bawany, Ahmed Bawany, Muhammad Akhlas, Najam-ur-Rehman, Faisal Fateh Ali, Irfan Rasheed Khan, Yousuf Haroon, Danish Baig, Faisal Essa, Masood Ahmed and Bilal Siddiqui.

The knock-out stage matches will be best-of-five-frame and from pre-quarterfinal matches will be best-of-seven-frame with best-of-nine-frame final.—APP