June 08, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 22, 1428

KARACHI, June 7: The organisers of the 23rd Asian Snooker Championship were dealt another blow when Iran also pulled out of the event, forcing the hosts to revise the groups on Thursday.

Late entrant Jordan became the first team to express their inability to feature in the annual competition citing pre-occupation in another tournament in Egypt.

“The Iranian government had put an embargo and decided the team needs more coaching in the aftermath of their miserable performance in the Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship at Doha,” secretary Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) Aspi Mavalvala told Dawn.

He disclosed that Iraq’s Ahmad Al Abdalt and Ali Al DM. T. Ali will not be coming due to personal reasons. The PBSA official said Reenat William will now be the sole Iraq’s representation in the event.

He said under the revised draw now 32 players belonging to 15 nations will vie for honours in the week-long event. The players have been drawn in eight groups of four each.

The Top two from each group will make it to the knockout pre quarter-finals.

Revised groups:

A: Mohammad Shehab (UAE), Chan Hon Kwan (Hong Kong), Kim Do-Hoon (Korea), Ali Nasser Al Obaidly (Qatar).

B: Alok Kumar (India), Mohammad Yousuf (Pakistan), Shimon Tauchi (Japan), Henry Boteju (Sri Lanka).

C: Supoj Saenia (Thailand), Mohamed Al Shaikh (Bahrain), Nguyen Phuc Long (Vietnam), Khurram Agha (Pakistan).

D: Liu Chuang (China), Puan Yi Wei Alex (Singapore), Saleh Mohammad (Pakistan), Buuveibaatar Enkhtaivan (Mangolia).

E: Jin Long (China), Chan Kwok Ming (Hong Kong), Pham Hoai Nam (Vietnam), Yutaka Fukuda (Japan).

F: Keith E. Boon (Singapore), Thetachaiya Un-Nooh (Thailand), Orchirbold Begzsuren (Mangolia), Mohsin A. Aziz (Qatar).

G: Habib Sabah (Bahrain), Yasin Merchant (India), Vishan Gir (Pakistan), Reenat William (Iraq).

H: Naveen Perwani (Pakistan), Mohammad Al Joakar (UAE), Jung Tae-Hoon (Korea), Susantha Boteju (Sri Lanka).