Federal sports authorities assure support to PBSA

By Syed Khalid Mahmood
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Pakistan Billiards &a Snooker Association (PBSA) has been assured the allocation of a hall for setting up snooker academy at the PSB Karachi Centre besides the release of the pending cash award to the ace cueist, Hamza Akbar.

Alamgir Anwar Shaikh. President, PBSA, who returned to the city after having held a series of meetings with the top functionaries of the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) in Islamabad over the past three days, expressed his delight with the positive mindset and cooperative attitude of the government officials. 

“The Federal Sports Minister, Riaz Hussain Pirzada, during our meeting, issued the directives to immediately release Hamza Akbar’s long pending cash award of Rupees 15 lacs for winning the Asian Championship 2015 in Malaysia. He also ordered for the allocation of a suitable hall to the PBSA for setting a snooker academy at the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Karachi Centre besides advising for the release of pending special grants to the Association in which the Pakistan snooker team had participated,” Alamgir Shaikh revealed. 

The PBSA President also held formal meetings with the newly appointed senior officials at the Ministry of IPC which included the Secretary, Raja Mohammad Nadir Ali, the Deputy Secretary, Fayyaz-ul-Haq, and the Joint Secretary Hussain Ahmed Madni, having briefed them on the performance and achievements of the association and the cueists. 

The snooker chief of the country also had lengthy sessions with the high-ranking functions of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) including its Director General, Dr Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera, Director General (National Federations), Mohammad Azam Dar and Deputy Director General, Syed Habib Shah. 

“The matters relating to the appointment of a foreign coach were on top of the agenda in meetings with the PSB officials. After deliberations and discussions they have given their consent to the PBSA for hiring Soheil Vahedi from Iran as the coach for the Pakistan snooker squad,” Alamgir Shaikh disclosed. 

 “Accordingly, as a part of the PBSA Coaching Programme, it has now been mutually decided to hold a 15-day training and coaching camp for Pakistan’s top cueists at the PSB Complex in Islamabad under the supervision of coach Soheil Vahedi next month,” the PBSA President concluded.

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Pakistan field strong outfit in World Junior Snooker

By Syed Khalid Mahmood
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Snooker has come alive in Pakistan with the twin conquests of Mohammad Asif in less than six months time and it’s no wonder that the youngsters have derived great motivation from him and they are eager to emulate their role model.

Mohammad Majid Ali had come very close to winning the 14th Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship 2013 in the Indian town of Indore a couple of months ago before going down fighting to Noppon Saengkham of Thailand in the final. 

Majid Ali will lead Pakistan’s campaign in the World Junior Snooker Championship 2013 to be staged in Beijing, China, from July 11 to 19. 

Mohsin Amin, Aamir Tariq and Hamza Akbar will be the other cueists representing the country in the global event. The Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Federation (PBSF) has selected the top four cueists of the Jubilee Insurance 5th National Junior Snooker Championship 2013 held in Karachi earlier this year.

“Mohsin Amin, Aamir Tariq, Majid Ali and Hamza Akbar, placed at number one, two, three and four respectively in the national junior ranking chart have been provided the opportunity to gain international exposure and try to bring more laurels for the country,” Alamgir Anwar Shaikh, President, PBSF, stated. 

“Quite a few of our junior cueists have shown tremendous promise of late which augurs very well for the future of the country in snooker. If they continue improving their game with the passage of time they are quite likely to emulate the feat of Mohammad Yousuf and Mohammad Asif,” he reckoned. 

“The youngsters have talent as well as passion. We are providing them every possible support to fine tune their skills. We are confident that the intensity will not drop and they will strive to perform even better in their next outings,” Alamgir Shaikh added. 

The PBSF President was satisfied with the form and fitness of the junior cueists who will participate in training and conditioning camp in Karachi from July 1 to 8 before their departure to China via Sri Lanka on July 9.

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Noppon Saengkham shatters Majid Ali’s dreams in final

By Syed Khalid Mahmood 
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Mohammad Majid Ali’s dreams of bringing home the Asian Junior crown were shattered by Noppon Saengkham of Thailand in a thrilling final of the 14th Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship 2013 in the Indian town of Indore on April 7.

  

Majid Ali had become Pakistan’s hope of annexing the title for the first time after the country’s premier cueist and the reigning national champion, Hamza Akbar, had been eliminated in the pre-quarter-finals a couple of days earlier. 

Both the teenagers from Faisalabad gave very impressive account of themselves to make their presence felt in a big way among the galaxy of top young cueists of the continent. They performed superbly and displayed enormous fighting qualities. Their never-say-die approach was the biggest positive to have come out of the one-week event. 

The Asian Junior title would have further lifted the Pakistan snooker which is already on a high following the triumph of Mohammad Asif in the World Championship late last year. There will be another chance for the duo of Majid Ali and Hamza Akbar alongwith Mohammad Asif to have a crack at the Asian Snooker Championship due to be staged in Karachi in a few weeks time. 

Incredibly all three of them belong to Faisalabad, a city famous for its industries, now making headlines for producing snooker champion material. 

  

Majid Ali fought very hard in the final of the Asian Junior Championship but Saengkham had the last laugh winning the tensely-fought encounter 6-5 with the scores being 62-63, 12-92), 91-1, 76-63, 24-73, 64-48, 37-85, 74-8, 112-15, 24-72, 63-46. 

The first blood was drawn by Majid Ali, who also doubled his lead by chalking up of a break of 66 in the second frame. Saengkham, however, caught up with breaks of 58 and 54 in the next two frames to make it 2-2. Majid Ali made it 3-2 by winning the fifth frame but Saengkham did’t take long to draw level again. 

The Pakistani youngster put his nose in front once more by taking the seventh frame and his rival fought back to snatch the eighth frame. It was Saengkham’s chance to move forward when he compiled a break of 66 in the ninth frame. This time Majid Ali drew level by clinching the tenth frame. The decisive eleventh frame went to the wire with the cueist from Thailand emerging triumphant in the closest of duels.

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Hamza Akbar favourite to win Asian Under-21 snooker title

By Syed Khalid Mahmood 

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The 19-year-old Hamza Akbar has become the favourite to win the 14th Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship 2013 starting in the Indian city of Indore on April 1 after having clinched Pakistan’s National Snooker Championship exactly a week ago.

   

Hamza, hailing from the industrial town of Faisalabad, has been in excellent form of late and it’s just a matter of extending that brilliant run for another week to bring home the continental title. 

“Winning the National Championship on my maiden appearance is certainly a fulfillment of a dream but I desire more wins. I will like to extend this purple patch and hope to do very well in the upcoming Asian Under-21 Championship,” Hamza remarked after capturing the national crown at the Karachi Gymkhana on March 25. 

Hamza will become the first Pakistani to annex the Asian Under-21 title, should he continue his winning form for a few more days. Mohammad Majid Ali, another highly promising youngster, is the other Pakistani cueist who will be in action at Indore where a total of 30 cueists will be competing for the crown. 

The participants have been divided in eight groups with the league matches to be spread over four days. The top two cueists from each group will be advancing to knockout phase starting with the pre-quarter-finals on April 5. The quarter-finals and the semifinals will be held the following day with the event to wind up with final and the prize distribution ceremony on April 7. 

According to the draws, the Group A comprises of Zhu Yinghui (China), Alireza Rezaei (Iran) and Ishpreet Chadha (India), the Group B contains Noppon Saengkham (Thailand), Khalid Kamali (UAE) and Dhvaj Haria (India) while the Group C features Malkeet Singh (India), Mohamed Naseer Mohamed Munshi (Sri Lanka), Maung Maung (Myanmar) and Ratchayothin Yotharuck (Thailand). 

The Group D has the presence of Hamza Akbar (Pakistan), Leong Man Hhoi (Hong Kong), Vishal Vaya (India) and Siyavosh Mazayani (Iran) while Mohammad Majid Ali (Pakistan), Wan Nansen Sin Man (Hong Kong), Badr Obaid Khalifa Almehairi (UAE) and Rahul Sachdev (India) have been drawn in the Group E. 

The Group F is composed of Hyder Salam Abd Ajmajid (Iraq), Ro Htet (Myanmar), Zhou Yelong (China) and Weerasooriya Maha Vidanalage Kanishka (Sri Lanka), the Group G consists of Boonyarit Keattikul (Thailand), Lu Ning (China), Amin Sanjaei (Iran) and Ali Naser Ali (Iraq) while the quartet of Hyder Abdul Sattar (Iraq), Nitesh Madan (India), Chang Ming Tung, Dongdong (Hong Kong) and Ali Gharahgozlou (Iran) constitute the Group H.

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Hamza Akbar creates sensation by annexing national snooker title

By Syed Khalid Mahmood
(Pakistan News  & Features Services) 

Debutant Hamza Akbar created a sensation by winning the recently concluded Jubilee Insurance 38th National Snooker Championship 2013 at the Karachi Gymkhana’s Billiards Hall. The teenager from Faisalabad, making his debut in the National Championship, blew the whistle on quite a few seasoned cueists to clinch the title against all odds. 

He was made to work very hard by Imran Shahzad in the final which lasted almost eight hours. Both the finalists, however, looked fit and fresh in the prize distribution ceremony which had to be delayed because of the marathon final which went to the full distance of 15 frames as Hamza won with the scores of 79-45, 36-70, 58-61, 76-1, 6-85, 23-89, 67-6, 64-22, 54-46, 80-6, 24-78, 24-73, 63-58, 0-115, 89-43. 

Tahir Ahmed, Managing Director, Jubilee General Insurance, and Javed Ahmed, Managing Director, Jubilee Life Insurance, presented the glittering trophy to Hamza alongwith a cash award of Rs 80,000 while Imran claimed a purse of Rs 50,000 with the runner-up trophy.

Both the guests of honour thoroughly enjoyed the epic final and they wholeheartedly congratulated both the finalists for coming up with awesome performance. Alamgir Anwar Shaikh, President, Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Federation (PBSF), delivered the welcome address in which he acknowledged the contribution of all stakeholders in making the event a success.

Homi Khambata, President, Karachi Gymkhana, himself an enthusiastic cueist, described the final a memorable one and looked forward to hosting many snooker events in the future.

“Obviously I am feeling thrilled at my accomplishment. I had done well in the junior circuit earlier but this performance at the senior level makes me happy beyond words. This is the fulfillment of one my dreams,” Hamza observed after being crowned as the new national champion at the age of 19.

“Mohammad Asif, who won the World Snooker Championship a few months ago, has been my role model. We belong to the same city (Faisalabad) and we have been playing at the same club there for the past couple of years. I have derived a lot of inspiration from him,” the dashing youngster disclosed.

“Although I had defeated experienced rivals in the earlier games the final presented a tougher challenge and I just took it frame by frame. Thankfully my game worked and I was able to beat my rival who was far more experienced than me,” Hamza added.

The 37-year-old Imran, hailing from Lahore, didn’t mince words in stating he lost to a cueist who played better than him in the final. The vastly experienced Imran, who didn’t lose any of his earlier games in the competition, regretted not having the most of his purple patch to win the national championship.

“I have won quite a few national ranking tournaments over the years but unfortunately I have yet not clinched the national title, having gone down fighting in the final for the fourth time,” he remarked.

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