KARACHI. Jan 26: The 36th NJI National snooker championship which cue-off at Karachi Gymkhana on Monday is likely to be an open affair as the gap between top cueists has been narrowed as witnessed in the preceding year.

If one goes by facts and figures, all the three national ranking events have produced different champions last year. Mohammad Sajjad annexed the national crown while his pupil Asjad Iqbal clinched the second ranking event.

The Del Monte Cup, the third ranking event, ended in a blaze of glory for Imran Shahzad.

The country’s premier snooker championship was abruptly brought forward by putting-off the fourth National juniors’ under-21 event after sponsors agreed to a proposal of Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) due to pressing committments at a press conference held at Karachi Gymkhana on Wednesday.

After taking sports journalists into confidence, PBSA president Alamgir Shaikh discussed the proposal with the top man of the insurance firm, Tahir Ahmed, and got his nod.

Sponsoring the national event will put an additional burden of at least Rs0.3 million on sponsors.

Speaking on the occasion the NJI chief said he feel pride to be associated with national junior snooker championship since its launch and asserted for the development of game at all tiers.

He held out assurance to sponsor the under-15 or under-17 snooker event, a ladies event, an international invitational contest, other national ranking events including the under-21 contest in the second half of the year.

At the outset, Alamgir said the winner of the national championship will earn automatic qualification for 27th Asian snooker championship being held at Indore, India, from April 23 to 30.

“PBSA will nominate the second player while Sajjad has got a special entry being last year’s losing finalist,” he added.

He disclosed that the national’s will form criteria for selecting a three-member team for five-nation snooker team series being held at Tehran from March 2 to 9.

Referring to coach, Alamgir added that plans are afoot to hire either a Chinese or Thai expert for short stint.

“We have now dropped the idea of hiring an Indian coach after failing to get NOC for Sanjay Sawant last year,” he remarked.

He also expressed his gratitude to sponsors, particularly, Tahir Ahmed, for coming to the rescue of PBSA.

Meanwhile, the national championship will carry prize money of Rs150,000, showing an increase of Rs25,000. The winner will earn Rs60,000 while the runner up takes home Rs35,000.

The 32 players — 16 ranking players and as many qualifiers — have been equally drawn into eight groups.

Top two from each will qualify for knockout pre quarter-finals. The event concludes on Feb 6.

President Karachi Gymkhana Ali Rahim and secretary PBSA Munawwar Hussain Shaikh were also present on the occasion.

Groups:

A: Imran Shahzad (Punjab), Rambel Gul (KP), Shah Khan (KP), Abdul Rehman (Balochistan).

B: Sohail Shahzad (Sindh), Nauman Awan (KP), Arshad Siddiq (KP), Zahoor Ahmed (Balochistan).

C: Mohammad Asif Toba (Punjab), Sultan Mohammad (Sindh), Hamidullah (KP), Kamran-ur-Rehman (Balochistan).

D: Mohammad Sajjad (Punjab), Mohammad Javed (Punjab), Yasir Shahzad (KP), Abid Hussain (Balochistan).

E: Asjad Iqbal (Punjab), Umair Alam (Sindh), Raja Rashid (Punjab), Faisal Kashmiri (Sindh).

F: Imran Qamar (Punjab), Qasim Kamani (Sindh), Ayaz Khan (Punjab), Mohammad Yousuf (Sindh).

G: Shahram Changezi (KP), Abdul Sattar (Sindh), Mohammad Imran (Punjab), Naveen Perwani (Sindh).

H: Mohammad Asif (Punjab), Sharjeel Mahmood (KP), Mohammad Shahid (Punjab), Khurram Agha (Sindh).