KARACHI: No cueist from Balochistan will be seen in action for the second time in two months when the Jubilee Insurance third ranking snooker championship kicks off at the Karachi Gymkhana on Friday on the pretext that none of them comes among the top 24.

Earlier, the cueists from Balochistan had also missed the NBP ranking event held in August on the same ground.

Normally, their cueists get only one exposure in a year in the National Snooker Championship where the province is entitled quota of six players.

Similarly, Shahram Changezi is the lone Islamabad cueist who is featuring in the event as he has some how maintained his ranking among the top 24. Currently, his ranking has slipped to 20th.

It is pertinent to mention that Punjab has been dominating the domestic circuit for the last one decade. This can be gauged from the fact that their cueists have earned lion’s share of 15 of the 24 places, besides three juniors in the third ranking competition of the year.

They are followed by Sindh (6) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (2) and Islamabad (1). The remaining one place of junior category is occupied by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa upcoming cueist Rafiq.

A total of 20 matches, equally spread over five sessions, will be played on Friday. The first session starts at 10am.

The qualifying rounds will be of best of seven frames, quarter-finals best of nine, semi-finals best of 11 and final best of 15. Curtain falls on the event on Oct 20.

Friday’s fixtures:

At 10am: Asjad Iqbal (Punjab) v Mohammad Rafiq (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Shahid Iqbal (Punjab) v Umer Farooq (Punjab), Mohammad Ijaz (Punjab) v Shaikh M. Mudassir (Punjab), Abdul Sattar (Sindh) v M. Naseem Akhtar (Punjab).

At 12noon: Sohail Shahzad (Sindh) v Mohammad Asif Toba (Punjab), Mohammad Bilal (Punjab) v Abu Sain (Punjab), Mubashir Raza (Punjab) v Shah Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Mohammad Sajjad (Punjab) v Sharjeel Mahmood (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).

At 2pm: Khurram Hussain Agha (Sindh) v Shahram Changezi (Islamabad), Mohammad Ishtiaq (Sindh) v M. Ahsan Javaid (Punjab), Babar Masih (Punjab) v Imran Shahzad (Punjab), Mohammad Asif (Punjab) v Zulfiqar A. Qadir (Sindh).

At 4pm: Asjad Iqbal (Punjab) v Mohammad Asif Toba (Punjab), Shahid Aftab (Punjab) v Abu Saim (Punjab), Mohammad Ijaz (Punjab) v Shah Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Abdul Sattar (Sindh) v Sharjeel Mahmood (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).

At 5pm: Agha Bilawal (Sindh) v Mohammad Rafiq (Khyber Paktunkhwa), Haris tahir (Punjab) v Umer Farooq (Punjab), Nadir Miraan (Punjab) v Shaikh M. Mudassir (Punjab), Mohammad Majid Ali (Punjab) v M. Naseem Akhtar (Punjab).

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2017