KARACHI: A galaxy of top cueists including reigning world champion Hossein Vafaei Ayouri of Iran and former world champion Pankaj Advani of India will vie for the title when the 28th Asian Snooker Championship cues-off in Doha on Friday.
According to the draws made available here, 52 players representing 23 nations have entered the contest which concludes on April 28.
The cueists include national champion Mohammad Asif and Pakistan No 2 Sultan Mohammad, who will be making his debut in the regional spectacle.
Asif has been drawn in group ‘A’ while Sultan is placed in group ‘C’. Both open their campaign on Friday when the former meets Khalid Soliman Alastal of Palestine at 3pm while the latter takes on M N Mohammed Munshi of Sri Lanka at 6pm.
Hosts Qatar have entered half-a-dozen cueists in the competition.
Squad: Mohammad Asif, Sultan Mohammad (players); Munawwar H. Shaikh (manager); Alamgir A. Shaikh (delegate) and Shabbir Hussain (referee).
Groups: A: Aditya Mehta (India), Khalid Soliman Alastal (Palestine), Bashar Hussain Abdulmajid (Qatar), Mohammad Asif (Pakistan), Mubarak Alowais (Kuwait), Karam Fatima (Syria) and Liu Hao Wei (Chinese Taipei).
B: Hossein Vafaei Ayouri (Iran), Mohammad Ali Berjawi (Libya), Aseeri Ahmed Abdullah (Saudi Arabia), Orchirbold Begzsuren (Magnolia), Khamis Nasser Alobaili (Qatar), Nader Khan Sultani (Afghanistan) and Omar Alkojah (Syria).C: Pankaj Advani (India), Ebrahim Alsharrah (Kuwait), Sultan Mohammad (Pakistan), Mohsin Khamis Abdulrahman (Qatar), Rouzi Maimaiti (China), M N Mohamed Munshi (Sri Lanka) and Malik M M Jadallah (Palestine).
D: Mohamed Rais Senzai (Afghanistan), Ali Hussain Ali (Iraq), Fung Kok Wai (Hong Kong), Habib Subah (Bahrain), Suleiman Omar S Abusalem (Jordan), Mohammad Al Joaker (UAE) and Lim Chun Kiat (Singapore).
E: Kamal Chawla (India), Saleh Mohammad (Afghanistan), Baek Min Hu (Korea), Firas Kamil Shaba (Iraq), Rodolfo Lordan Jr (Philippines) and Mohammad Lababi (Iran).
F: Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (Thailand), Ahmed Saif (Qatar), Ahmad Adnan A Alokally (Jordan), Batsukh Balandori (Mangolia), Michael Mengorio (Philippines) and Omar Ashiq (Bahrain).
G: Jin Long (China), Noppon Saengkham (Thailand), Lin Shu Hong (Chinese Taipei), Mohammad Al Bin Ali (Qatar), Hwang Chul Ho (Korea) and Ehsan Heydari Nezhad (Iran).
H: Mohammad Mustafa Shehab (UAE), Susantha Boteju (Sri Lanka), Alwadi Yousef Ibrahim (Saudi Arabia), Ang Boon Chin (Singapore), Lin Tang Alan (Hong Kong) and Mohsen Aziz Bukshaisha (Qatar).
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