Lights, camera, action!

KARACHI: The first global cue sports in the country for 22 years, the Jubilee Insurance World 6-Reds and Team Championships 2015, will be inaugurated in a colourful inauguration ceremony here at Hotel Movenpick on Thursday (today).
With nine of the foreign contingents already having landed, three more due to arrive late Wednesday evening and the remaining five having confirmed bookings on Thursday, the officials of the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) were confident of having all the participants of 18 countries in the inauguration ceremony due to start at 6.30 pm.
The championships are being organised under the auspices of the International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF).
Alamgir Shaikh, President, PBSA, informed ‘The News’ here on Wednesday that the cueists from Malaysia, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had checked in at the hotel while the flights carrying the squads of Iran, Latvia and Turkey were due to land later in the evening.
“The cueists from Australia, China, Egypt and England will be landing here on Thursday when the Pakistan squad will also check in at the hotel,” he added.
The PBSA President stated that Kamal Chawla was the first among the Indian cueist to have reached Karachi with his teammates joining him in different batches.
After having attended an organising committee session, he revealed that it has been decided to hold the 6-Reds events for men and women from August 7 to 11 while the Men’s Team and the Masters championships will be staged from August 12 to 15.
“The format for the 6-Reds events for men and women has also been finalised, according to which the league matches will be best of seven-frame contests, the quarter-finals and the semifinals will be best of nine-frame encounter and the final will be a best of 11-frame duel. The format for Men’s Team and the Masters championships will be decided

later,” the PBSA President notified.
He informed that the Federal Sports Minister, Riaz Pirzada, will be the guest of honour in the inauguration ceremony which will be also be attended by Zubair Omar, Federal Minister for Privatization.
It was announced by Tournament Director, Joseph Lu from Hong Kong, who is also the Treasurer of the Asian Confederation of Billiards Sports (ACBS), that the Players and Referees meeting will be held at 5 pm on Thursday (today).
Meanwhile the venue of the first global cue sports event being staged in Karachi after the Red & White World Snooker Championship in 1993, was buzzing with activity with less than 24 hours left for its opening.
The Ball Room on the Mezzanine Floor was presenting a colourful look with the placement of 16 snooker tables in the hall. The fitters and the mechanics were busy in giving final touches to the already placed tables.
The Business Arcade of the hotel, where the Pakistan squad had been training for the past couple of weeks, was also a centre of snooker activity as the practice tables have been installed there and the foreign cueists were busy availing the opportunity of having sessions there.