Pak squad to feature in IBSF World Snooker C’ships

KARACHI: A five-member Pakistan squad will be flying out here on Monday (tomorrow) to take part in the IBSF World Snooker Championships 2019 being staged in Antalya, Turkey.

The quartet of M Asif, Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir, Babar Masih and Mubashir Raza will be accompanied by Naved Kapadia, having been designated as one of the officiating referees in the World Snooker Championships being held there from October 29 to November 9.

While Asif, a former world champion, continued to demonstrate his prowess by winning the 3rd Jubilee Insurance Ranking Snooker Championship 2019 here at the Karachi Gymkhana earlier this month, the below-par performances of the trio of Zulfiqar, Babar and Mubashir in the same event could be a cause of concern to the Pakistan camp.

Zulfiqar, in particular, came up with the most disappointing performance in the recently held ranking event as he crashed to defeat after defeat in preliminary rounds to be eliminated much earlier than anticipated. Mubashir also failed to make it to the knockout rounds while Babar, the defending champion, was overpowered in the quarterfinals.

Ironically, the likes of M Sajjad, a former world number two, M Bilal and Sohail Shahzad, who fared exceptionally well in the Ranking Championship on the eve of the big global event, could not force their way into the Pakistan line-up.

The Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) has reasoned that they had sent the names to the International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF) earlier in order to meet the deadline of submission for the World Championship. The PBSA functionaries were unable to justify, however, the delay in holding the 3rd Jubilee Insurance Ranking Snooker Championship 2019 which didn’t allow them to take into account its performances for as important an event as the World Championship.