KARACHI: Pakistan thrashed hosts Egypt 4 by 4-1 in their opening fixture of the IBSF World Team Snooker Championship which commenced in the Egyptian city of Marsa Alam on Thursday.

According to results made available here the Pakistani pair that comprised of Mohammad Bilal and Mohammad Majid Ali was home 71-35, 25-72, 62-47, 63-51, 85-17 in the best of five frames encounter.

Drawn in group, Pakistan takes on Qatar tonight and India-4 on Friday.

As many as 23 teams belonging to 10 nations are competing in the team event. They have been drawn into six groups. The participating countries are Pakistan, India, Qatar, Egypt, Wales, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Russia, Thailand and Hong Kong.

The team event will be followed by 6-Reds competitions. The event concludes on Dec 22.

Earlier, the team’s departure was preceded by revolt by selected quartet – top seed Babar Masih, second seed Mohammad Asif, fourth seed Mohammad Majid Ali and fifth seed Mohammad Bilal — on the pretext that they will not sign the central contract for the year 2019 before travel.

“We are already bound under the 2018 contract till Dec 31 and will sign the new agreement on return from Egypt,” the cueists had told Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation (PBSF) officials in their office.

Bilal and Majid, however, succumbed to pressure and signed the contract.

“As the reigning world and Asian champions we (Asif and Babar) have a good chance to win honours but were denied to represent the country,” Asif told Dawn.

Deploring the attitude of the PBSA officials “to sign the contract or go home” the former world champion said we wanted to represent the country that’s why we’ve come to Karachi after travelling 1300km from Punjab.

Asked about the future strategy Asif said he had requested the Prime Minister and Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan to take notice of PBSF’s apathy for depriving the top two cueists to win honours for the country.

“Playing and winning laurels for the nation has always been an honour which only the players understand and not the officials, “he remarked.

According to him, the Punjab Cup has been stopped at quarter-finals stage and the top eight cueists have extended their support.

Meanwhile, the PBSF in a statement said: “Babar Masih and Mohammad Asif refused to represent Pakistan by declining to sign the central contract 2019, which had also been sent to all the provincial associations on Nov 16 and is annually offered to players who fulfill the criteria, as per normal past practice, and there is no major changes or deviations from the past central contracts signed by the players previously.”

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2018