KARACHI: Talented cueist Mohammad Bilal, who made his mark by basking glory in the 41st National Snooker Championship three months back, will be under spotlight when the Jubilee Insurance second ranking snooker championship cues off at Movenpick hotel on May 28.

A native of Mandi Bahauddin, Punjab, Bilal, who surprised the fraternity of the game by getting the better of Sohail Shehzad 7-5 in the final, has been top seeded and placed in group A in the second ranking event of the calendar.

The 29-year-old Bilal, who has come out of the shadow of a number of experienced cueists, will have to prove that his triumph was not a fluke.

The details of the event that carries Rs1,65,000 prize money, were announced by the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation (PBSF) president Alamgir Shaikh at a press conference held at Karachi Gymkhana on Monday.

The event will see 38 top ranked cueists vying for honours in the week long event that concludes on June 4.

Speaking on the occasion, the PBSF chief came hard on the cueists for being lethargic and performing below par.

“The defeats of experienced Pakistani players at the hands of minnows like Saudi Arabia and Iraq abroad recently, is a great cause of concern and if they don’t come up to the mark at Abu Dhabi, the PBSF may think to replace the lot with juniors,” he cautioned.

It is pertinent to mention that Mohammad Sajjad and Shehram Changezi lost to Iraq and Saudi Arabia in the last-64 and last-96 rounds respectively in the world championship at Hurgada last year. Again, Mohammad Asif and Sohail Shehzad suffered astonishing defeats at the hands of Saudi Arabian opponents in their respective league matches at Qatar’s Asian championship recently.

Alamgir said the PBSF might invite a foreign coach for a short stint in September.

Managing director of the Jubilee Insurance Tahir Ahmed offered to sponsor a junior domestic event in the second half of the year.

Groups:

A: Mohammad Bilal (Punjab), Abu Saim (Punjab), Mohammad Nouman Iqbal (Islamabad), Bahadur Khan (Balochistan).

B: Sohail Shehzad (Sindh), Mohammad Afzal (Punjab), Ian Mark John (Sindh), Mohammad Saqib (Punjab).

C: Mohammad Asif (Punjab), Mohammad Iftikhar Khan (Sindh), Abdul Raheem (Punjab), M. Ijaz (Punjab), Muzammil Khan (Sindh).

D: Babar Masih (Punjab), Shahid Aftab (Punjab), Rambel Gul (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Nadir Miran (Punjab), Hunain Amir (Punjab).

E: Mohammad Sajjad (Punjab), Abdul Sattar (Sindh), Khurram Agha (Sindh), Asif Toba (Punjab), Saeed Khan (Balochistan).

F: Shahram Changezi (Islamabad), Mohammad Faheem (Punjab), Haris Tahir (Punjab), Sultan Mohammad (Sindh), Abdul Raziq (Balochistan).

G: Asjad Iqbal (Punjab), Mohammad Majid Ali (Punjab), Sharjeel Mehmood (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Farhan Noor (Punjab), Mohammad Jawed (Punjab).

H: Abdul Jawed (Punjab), Zulfiqar A Qadir (Sindh), Imran Shehzad (Punjab), Aakash Rafique (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Mohammad Jawaid Ansari (Sindh).

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2016