KARACHI, Feb 28: The 32nd National Snooker Championship begins at Karachi Gymkhana Thursday with 56 players vying for honours.

Defending champion Khurram Agha, a former Pakistan No 1, has been top seeded in the contest. Other seeded players in order are Mohammad yousuf, Naveen Perwani, Imran Shehzad, Rambel Gul, Sohail Shahzad, Mohammad Asif and Salman Shaikh.

The participants have been equally drawn in eight groups and top two from each will make it to the pre quarter-final knock-out stage. Curtain will come down on the two-week long country’s premier snooker championship on March 14 with the grand final.

The highlight of the annual event is obviously participation of former National champion, Farhan Mirza, who has returned from abroad. Though he was part of Pakistan team at Doha Asian Games in December, this will be his first appearance before the home crowd after a long time as they are eager to watch him in action.

At the same time the followers of the game will certainly miss the exploits of Saleh Mohammad, a former finalist of World Snooker Championship, as he has gone to Afghanistan.

Saleh, who entered the last National championship as defending champion, was off the mark as he lost 1-6 to the eventual champion, Khurram Agha, in the pre-final. Thereafter, he skipped the entire domestic circuit.

The championship carries a total prize money of Rs204,000 with winner getting a purse of Rs70,000 and runners-up Rs40,000.

Thursday’s fixtures:

Kamran Shah v Javed Ansari, Arshad Siddiq v Mohammad Afzal, Shahid Shafiq v Asad Pervaiz, Kashif khan v Janan Khan 10am; Mustafa Hyder v Sunil Shahani, Sharjeel Mahmood v Shahram Changezi, Mohammad Nazeer v Ziaur Rehman, Farrukh Usman v Mahmood Khan 12noon; Irfan Rasheed Khan v Nauman Awan, Imran Qamar v Abdul Rehman, Imtiaz Tipu v Abdul Sattar, Saqib Butt v Awais Honey 2pm; Syed Mesam Zaidi v Amanullah, Raees Khan v Jahangir Khan, Vishan Gir v Qasim Kamani, Abu Saim v Shafiq 4pm.