KARACHI: International Babar Masih will fly to Bangkok on Saturday to compete in the Sangsom 6-Reds World Snooker Championship being held there from Sept 5 to 10.

The Rawalpindi-based cueist was extended an invitation by the Thai association on the basis of his performance in the Asian 6-Reds event that was held at Abu Dhabi in May where he went down in the quarter-final.

It is pertinent to mention that Babar had reached his career best top position in the national rankings after he won the second ranking event by getting the better of Asjad Iqbal 6-5 in the final held in June.

As many as 48 top cueists across the world will vie for the honours in the event that carries lucrative total prize money of baht 8,000,000. They have been equally drawn into eight groups. Top four from each group will qualify for the knockout quarter-finals.

According to break-up, the winner will fetch baht 2,500,000, runner-up will earn baht 1,000,000 while the semi-finalists will get richer by baht 500,000.

Besides the quarter-finalists, last-16 and last-32, who will also get substantial purse, the last-48 will receive baht 31,250.

Babar has been drawn in group E along with Stuart Bingham (England), Ryan Day (Wales), Wayne Brown (England), Darren Morgan (Wales) and Ratchapol Pu-Ob-Orm (Thailand).

According to Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation (PBSF), the player will be accompanied by two officials — Jawed Karim (delegate) and Shabbir Hussain (referee).

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2016