KARACHI, Oct 15: After getting readmission into the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) fold last week (Thursday) following a change of guard, the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) is facing financial crunch and immediately requires sponsorship of Rs 0.9 million for sending two cueists and as many officials to Linz, Austria, for the IBSF World Snooker Championship being held from Oct 27 to Nov 8.

The PBSA has already picked former world No 2 Saleh Mohammad and former Asian No 3 Khurram Agha for the trip and the two are attending camp at the Karachi Club. They will be accompanied by Wahid Qadir (manager) and Alamgir A. Shaikh (delegate).

“We have approached the Pakistan Sports Trust (PST) for their support as the PSB has turned down our request to release special grant at a short notice because it needs approval of finance committee which meets either in Nov or Dec,” Alamgir, who recently replaced Asghar Valika at the helm of PBSA, told Dawn on his return from Islamabad on Wednesday.

Quoting the PSB officials he said only Federal Minister for Sports, Najamuddin Khan, has the authority to release special grants before the meeting.

He said finding no other option, the PBSA has approached General (retd) Syed Arif Hasan and is confident that like couple of occasions in the past the PST chief will come to the team’s rescue.

To a question, he said Pakistan would skip the event for the first time in two decades if PBSA failed to get the required funds.