KARACHI: As many as 38 cueists from across the country including the quartet that miserably failed to come up to the mark in the just-concluded fourth Asian team event and fifth 6-Reds snooker championships will compete for honours when the second ranking snooker championship begins at hotel Movenpick Arcade on Saturday.

National champion Mohammad Bilal, former world champion Mohammad Asif, Babar Masih and Asjad Iqbal, who represented the country in the event at Abu Dhabi, disappointed the fraternity of the game with their below par performance.

The contestants include two wild cards — 2012 national junior champion Hunain Amir and under-18 runner-up Muzammil Khan. In addition, national under-18 and under-21 champions Haris Tahir and Mohammad Saqib respectively and under-21 losing semi-finalists Abdul Jawed and Abdul Raheem will be focus of attention.

A total of 22 matches — six apiece in the first three sessions and four in the fourth and last session — will be played on the opening day.

The group matches concludes on Tuesday and will be followed by knockout round. The event concludes on June 4.According to prize money break-up, the winner will receive a purse of Rs70,000 while Rs40,000 have been set aside for runner-up out of total prize money of Rs1,65,000.

Saturday’s fixtures:

At 10am: Mohammad Asif (Punjab) v Muzammil Khan (Sindh), Mohammad Iftikhar Khan (Sindh) v Mohammad Ijaz (Punjab), Babar Masih (Punjab) v Hunain Amir (Punjab), Shahid Aftab (Punjab) v Nadir Miran (Punjab), Mohammad Sajjad (Punjab) v Saeed Khan (Balochistan), Abdul Sattar (Sindh) v Mohammad Asif Toba (Punjab).

At 12noon: Shahram Changezi (Islamabad) v Abdul Raziq (Balochistan), Mohammad Faheem (Punjab) v Sultan Mohammad (Sindh), Asjad Iqbal (Punjab) v Mohammad Jawed (Punjab), Mohammad Majid Ali (Punjab) v Farhan Noor (Punjab), Abdul Jawed (Punjab) v Mohammad Jawaid Ansari (Sindh), Zulfiqar A. Qadir (Sindh) v Aakash Rafique (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).

At 2pm: Mohammad Bilal (Punjab) v Bahadur Khan (Balochistan), Abu Saim (Punjab) v Mohammad Nouman Iqbal (Islamabad), Sohail Shehzad (Sindh) v Mohammad Saqib (Punjab), Mohammad Afzal (Punjab) v Ian Mark John (Sindh), Mohammad Asif (Punjab) v Abdul Raheem (Punjab), Babar Masih (Punjab) v Rambel Gul (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).

At 4pm: Mohammad Sajjad (Punjab) v Khurram Agha (Sindh), Shahram Changezi (Islamabad) v Haris Tahir (Punjab), Asjad Iqbal (Punjab) v Sharjeel Mehmood (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Abdul Jawed (Punjab) v Imran Shehzad (Punjab).

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2016