KARACHI, March 11: Former world champion Mohammad Yousuf and former world No 2 Saleh Mohammad will renew their battle for supermacy when the Rs204,000 31st National snooker championship begins at the Snooker Zone on March 20.

Second seed Saleh is the defending champion and denied his arch rival Yousuf to win 14th title of his career last year. After toppling Yousuf 6-1 in the pre-final, Saleh handed a 6-2 defeat to Naveen Perwani in the title clash.

Yousuf has been top seeded in the 48-men draw released by the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) on Friday.

Naveen Perwani and Abu Saim were seeded third and fourth followed by Atiq Latif Bux, Imran Shehzad, Khurram Agha and Shehram Changzei.

The 16 top ranked cueists were joined by 32 qualifiers coming from four provinces of the country. They have been equally drawn in eight groups.

The top16 would make their appearance on the second day of the competition. The league matches would conclude on March 25 to be followed by the knock out stage.

The quarterfinals and pre-finals would be played on March 29 while the championship concludes on March 30.

The winner would receive a handsome purse of Rs75,000 while the runners up will take home Rs40,000.

This is the first time that the country’s premier snooker championship is being played at a parlour.

The matches would be played on four tables imported for the world championship in the recent past.

Groups: “A”: Mohammad Yousuf (Sindh), Sohail Shehzad (Sindh), Kamran Razzak(Sindh),Raja Rashid (Punjab), Khalid (NWFP), Naeem Jaffar (Balochistan).

“B”: Saleh Mohammad (NWFP), Raees Khan (Punjab), Mohammad Sadiq( Punjab), Mohammad Hussain (NWFP), Taj Muhammad (Balochistan),Mohammad Kashif (Sindh).

“C”: Naveen Perwani (Sindh), Inamur Rehman (NWFP), Shah Khan (NWFP), Mohammad Ali (Balochistan), Jawad Ansari (Sindh), Mohammad Sharif (Punjab).

“D”: Abu Saim (Punjab), Minhas Malik (Punjab), Abdul Rehman (Balochistan), Syed Mesam Zaidi (Sindh), Dr. Imran Qamar (Punjab), Yasir Shahzad (NWFP).

“E”: Atiq Latif Bux (Sindh), Salman Shaikh (Sindh), Kashif Khan (Sindh), Tahir Rasheed (Punjab), Arshad Siddiq (NWFP), Mohammad Yousuf (Balochistan).

“F”: Imran Shehzad (Punjab), Saqib Butt (Punjab), Asif Haris (Punjab), Hamid Bata (NWFP), Mehmood Khan (Balochistan), Vishan Gir (Sindh).

“G”: Khurram Agha (Sindh), Mohammad Asif (Punjab), Nauman Awan (NWFP), Jan Ali (Balochistan), Mohammad Akhlas (Sindh), Farhan Noor (Punjab).

“H”: Shehram Changezi (Punjab), M. Imtiaz Tipu (Punjab), Mustafa Hyder (Balochistan), Irfan Rasheed Khan (Sindh), Imran Khan (Punjab), Rambel Gul (NWFP).