KARACHI: After the World 6-Reds snooker title yet again eluded the hosts in the third attempt since its inception, Pakistan now look ahead to the men’s and masters team events which get into action at hotel Movenpick from Wednesday at 10am.

Pakistan has fielded nine teams in the mens and three in the masters team events. Spearheaded by Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Sajjad, Pakistan look formidable enough to make amends on last year’s shock defeat at Sharm-el-Sheikh.

After capturing the mens team title at the inaugural event two years back, the Asif-Sajjad pair had to be content with silver after losing to Hong Kong I in the final last year.

On current form and track record, one of the five teams — Hong Kong I, Pakistan I, India I, China and Iran I — look poised to capture the mens title. The teams have been drawn into eight groups and top two from each will qualify for the last-16 (pre quarter-finals).

Pakistan is also aiming to win the masters team event and their hopes rest with former world amateur champion Mohammad Yousuf and Naveen Perwani who have rich experience under their belts. According to the draws, the players have been divided into two groups and top two will go through the semi-finals.

Groups:

Mens team event:

A: Chun Wai Lee-Kwok Wai Fung (Hong Kong I); Babar Masih-Shahram Changezi (Pakistan 2); Ahmed Saif-Mhanaa Alobaidli (Qatar 2); Nadir Khan Sultani-Mohammad Rais Senzhai (Afghanistan).

B: Soheil Vahedi-Amir Saokosh (Iran I); Mohammad Faheem-Abdul Raheem (Pakistan 9); Rahul Ajay Sachdev-Ketan Chawla (India 5); Abdulla Mujairan- Khalil Busaif (Bahrain 3).

C: Mohammad Asif-Mohammad Sajjad (Pakistan I); Shahbaaz Adil Khan-Sourav Kothari (India 4); Hamed Zaredoust-Pedram Arteshyar (Iran 2); Keen Hoo Moh-Kok Leong Lim (Malaysia).

D: Pankaj Advani-Varun Madan (India I); Abdullah Alshammari-Alwadi Yousef (Saudi Arabia I); Abdul Sattar-Zulfiqar Qadir (Pakistan 8); Mohammad Omar Ashiq-Sadeq Alghuraifi (Bahrain 2) A Mohsin Al Abdulrehman-Bashar Abdulmajeed (Qatar 3).

E: Mohamed Shehab-Khalid Al Kamali (UAE I); Mohammad Majid Ali-Hunain Amir (Pakistan 5); Faisal Khan-Dharminder Lilly (India 2); Han Hoi Leong-Nansen Sin Man Wan (Hong Kong 3).

F: Hon Man Chau-Tang Ho Alan Lin (Hong Kong 2); Mohammad Sultan-Akash Rafique (Pakistan 6); Habib Subah-Ahmed Janahi (Bahrain I); Rambel Gul-Mohammad Asif Toba (Pakistan 7).

G: Mohamed Khairy-Ahmed Galal (Egypt); Imran Shehzad-Sohail Shehzad (Pakistan 4); Mohammad Alshamsi-Marwan Alfalasi (UAE 2); Omar Alajani-Ahmed Aseeri (Saudi Arabia 2).

H: Yan Bingtao-I Yingdong (China); Asjad Iqbal-Shahid Aftab (Pakistan 3); Manan Chandra-Kamal Chawla (India 3); Ali Alobaidli-ohsen Bukshaisha (Qatar 1).

Masters event:

A: Alok Kumar-Rafath Habib (India); Mohammad Yousuf-Naveen Perwani (Pakistan I); Chris Hart-Stephen Broadhead (England); Mohammad Al Joaker-Salim Ali Alsuwaidi (UAE).

B: Simon Dent-Nigel Howe (England I); Zemarai Hassas-Saleh Mohammad (Afghanistan); Sarwar Siddiqui-Ahmed Bawany (Pakistan 2); Mohammad Mukhtar-Saqib Jamal (Pakistan 3).

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2015

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