Record 17 century breaks chalked up as Asif retains Langnese Snooker Cup

By Syed Khalid Mahmood
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

World champion Mohammad Asif lived upto his big reputation and succeeded in retaining the Langnese Snooker Cup by overpowering surprise packet in the final at the Karachi Sheraton Hotel on November 24.

He didn’t look back after suffering a shock defeat in the opening match of the six-day event. He went on to conquer his other six opponents in the league matches before winning both the knockout games. 

In the best of 15-frame final he outgunned Mohammad Bilal, hailing from the town of Mandi Bahauddin, 8-4 with the frame scores of 37-96, 71-34, 71-29, 120-0, 71-50, 122-10, 72-22, 81-45, 5-84, 13-104, 27-67, 98-0. He followed a break of 71 in the fourth frame with an even better one of 116 in the fifth frame. 

The final, unlike some of the league matches, was played at a brisk pace with both the contestants in pursuit of potting consistently instead of going for safety. As a result the 12 frames were completed in a matter of just three hours and 45 minutes. 

At the end of the match the reigning world champion suggested that his rival Bilal, playing his maiden final of a national ranking tournament, did show sign of nerves at crucial stages of the title clash which was not surprising.

“It happens with everyone when playing in front of the television cameras for the first time. He must have been under pressure which didn’t allow him to play the way he would have liked in the final,” Asif felt. 

The 28-year-old Bilal, however, was credited to have a staged a fine comeback in the session, after having been blanked 1-7 in the morning session, despite having claimed the opening frame. 

He did take some positives from the final despite losing it 4-8 eventually. He chalked up a break of 55 in the first frame, one of 61 in the ninth frame and another one of 75 in the tenth frame. 

Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui, Commissioner, Karachi, was the chief guest in the prize distribution ceremony which was presided over by Saquib Riaz, Chief Executive Officer, Anjum Asif Limited. Ahmed Chinoy, Chairman, Citizen-Police Liaison Committee, and Sikander Mahmood, Chairman, Pakistan Hotels Association, were also present on the occasion.

Shoaib Siddiqui, in his brief speech, acknowledged the rising standard of snooker in the country and pledged to facilitate the government support for its further promotion and development. He urged the corporate sector to come forward to patronize the sport. 

Alamgir Anwar Shaikh, President, Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), in his welcome address, praised the cueists for registering as many as 17 century breaks during the tournament. 

Shoaib Siddiqui and Saquib Riaz presented Mohammad Asif a purse of Rs 70,000 for winning the Ranking Cup while runner-up Mohammad Bilal received a cash award of Rs 40,000. Top seeded Shahid Aftab, who couldn’t make it to the semifinals, picked up a prize of Rs 10,000 for registering the highest break of the tournament (140) while second seed Imran Shahzad and unseeded Babar Masih, the losing semifinalists, were compensated with Rs 15,000 each.

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Shahid Aftab set to become Pakistan’s 16th cueist to appear in World Championship

By Syed Khalid Mahmood
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Shahid Aftab, an accomplished cueist from Faisalabad, is set to become 16th Pakistani to participate in the World Snooker Championship which celebrates its golden jubilee this year. 

Latif Amir Bakhsh, Tanvir Dada, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Amir Bakhsh, Naveen Perwani, Saleh Mohammad, Farhan Mirza, Imran Puri, Mohammad Shafiq, Khurram Agha, Imran Shahzad, Mohammad Sajjad, Mohammad Asif, Sohail Shahzad and Asjad Iqbal are the other cueists from Pakistan to have played in the World Championship, having been instituted in 1963. 

Mohammad Yousuf and Mohammad Asif are the only ones to have captured the world crown. Yousuf achieved this feat at Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1994 while Asif emulated him 18 years later at Bulgaria, Sofia. 

Asif will be defending his title in the 2013 IBSF World Snooker Championship to be staged in Daugavpils, Latvia, from September 27 to December 8. He will be accompanied by Shahid Aftab and Imran Shahzad as Pakistan will be fielding three entries this time round because of him being the holder. 

Shahid has made the cut by having emerged triumphant in the Jubilee Insurance 3rd Ranking Snooker Championship 2013 at the Karachi Sheraton Hotel on September 26. He has now become the top ranked cueist of the country.

Imran, who made his international debut at Korat, Thailand, in 2007, will be making his fourth appearance in the World Championship, having also participated at Damascus, Syria, in 2010 and at Bangalore, India, the following year. 

Asif, who won the National Championship in 2009, made his debut in the World Championship later the same year at Hyderabad, India. He missed the action in the global event in 2010 but returned to represent the country in 2011. He then rewrote history by winning the world crown at Sofia, Bulgaria, last year.

Yousuf had been participating in the World Championship every year since 1988. After winning the title in 1994, he appeared in the 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2000 editions of the premier amateur event. Still active in the national circuit, he has had the distinction of playing in exactly a dozen editions of the World Championship, which is the Pakistan record for the highest appearances. He also holds the record of winning the National Championship on the highest number of occasions. 

Saleh Mohammad, who has now emigrated to Afghanistan, represented Pakistan in as many as 11 editions of the World Championship from 1993 to 2004. He could have surpassed Yousuf’s record if the event was not scrapped in 2001 and 2005. He had come closest to claiming the world title in 2003 when, after winning the earlier 14 games on a trot, he was downed in the final by Pankaj Advani of India at Jiangmen, China. 

Naveen Kumar Perwani participated in the World Championships in 1992, 1993, 1995, and 2006 while Khurram Hussain Agha earned this honour in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008. Mohammad Sajjad has appeared in a couple of editions of the World Championship (2009 and 2010) while Sohail Shahzad and Asjad Iqbal represented Pakistan in the global event in 2010 and 2012 respectively.

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Pakistan's first-ever snooker academy inaugurated in Faisalabad

By Syed Khalid Mahmood 

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

While cricket and hockey continue to test the patience of the sports enthusiasts in Pakistan, the progress being made in the game snooker provides some consolation. At a time when the hockey team failed to even qualify for the World Cup and the cricketers struggled to overcome the lowly-rated Zimbabwe there was some ray of hope for the country to seek further glories in snooker.

The industrial town of Faisalabad, which is home to the current world snooker champion, Mohammad Asif, has now taken the lead in establishing the first-ever snooker academy of the country. It was in the fitness of things that Asif was present in the inauguration ceremony as the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) inked a deal with the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF), for establishing academy on September 14. 

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Alamgir Anwar Shaikh, President, PBSA, and Dr Iqrar Ahmed Khan, Vice Chancellor, UAF, in a high-profile ceremony at the campus on Saturday in the presence of Riaz Hussain Pirzada, Minister for Inter Provincial Co-ordination (IPC). 

Syed Amir Hamza Gilani, Director General, Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and Dr Akhter Nawaz Ganjera, Director General (Technical & Training), PSB, were also present on the occasion while the Snooker & Billiards Association of Punjab (SBAP) was represented by its President, Naveed Ahmed, and Secretary, Shahzad Riaz Choudhary.

According to the PBSA media release,  the welcome speech by its President, Alamgir Shaikh who requested the IPC Minister to use his good offices to donate a couple of tables from the Ministry since the PBSA had planned to install four tables for the Academy but only two could be arranged due to financial constraints. 

The PBSA President thanked the Vice Chancellor UAF for providing the University Hall for the Academy and praised the management for their wholehearted co-operation in turning the dream of a snooker academy into reality. 

The Vice Chancellor, Dr Iqrar Ahmed Khan, acknowledged the efforts of the PBSA in establishing this academy which he said was a big achievement and assured the Minister that the University of Agriculture will always be ready for any sports activity in the premises. He also offered a job to world champion Mohammad Asif at the university. 

The IPC Minister, Riaz Pirazada, in his speech, recognized the initiatives of the PBSA and the UAF for setting up the snooker academy. He praised the efforts of the PBSA for the promotion of snooker in Pakistan and lauded the cueists for their achievements in international competitions which made the country proud.

The Minister announced that the two tables to the Faisalabad Snooker Academy will be provided by the Ministry of Inter Provincial Co-ordination in addition to the already installed two) tables by the PBSA. Furthermore, the Minister also gave assurance on behalf of the federal government that Mohammad Asif will soon get his entitlement of the cash award of Rs. 10 Million as per Sports Policy. 

The Snooker Academy Hall was declared officially open by the IPC Minister by cutting the ribbon and playing a shot on the snooker table. 

The PBSA President proposed that the name of the Hall provided by the UAF for the Snooker Academy be named Muhammad Asif Snooker Hall. The Vice Chancellor agreed to the proposal and assured to take approval of the said proposal from the Board of the UAF.

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Asjad retains NBP trophy by toppling world champion in epic final

By Syed Khalid Mahmood
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Asjad Iqbal had done it before, having overpowered Mohammad Asif in the final of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Ranking Snooker Championship. But the victory at the NBP Sports Complex in Karachi on August 27, 2013 tasted sweeter for he had now outwitted the reigning world champion.

Asif had his moments in the epic final but the lady luck was smiling on the young Asjad who won the thriller 8-7 with the frame scores of 66-10, 82-35, 66-65, 49-72, 0-123, 66-57, 58-82, 14-92, 60-68, 83-40, 50-63, 75-48, 36-57, 64-25, 67-40. 

Sponsors NBP could not have asked for a better outcome of the event. Both the finalists belonged to them. The final lasted almost six and half hours and the both the contestants were exhausted in the closing stages of the marathon battle. 

The NBP tournament continued to bring good fortune to the 21-year-old Asjad, who has now won the title three times in last four editions. The lad from Sargodha kept his cool until the end, not having shown any signs of nerves while coming to terms with the world champion. His body language remained positive throughout the final. 

The 31-year-old Asif, hailing from Faisalabad, had reasons to feel hard done by the rub of the green going the way of his opponent but he was sporting enough to praise him publicly for having withstood the pressure of a final. 

Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, Commissioner Karachi, was the chief guest in the presentation ceremony, which was delayed by an hour due to the extended duration of the final. Iqbal Qasim, Divisional Head Sports & CSR, and Qamar Hussain, Divisional Head HR, of NBP were also present on the occasion alongwith Alamgir Anwar Shaikh, Munawwar Hussain Shaikh and Abdul Wahid Qadir, the top officials of the Pakistan Billiards &  Snooker Association (PBSA). 

In his welcome speech, the PBSA President wholeheartedly acknowledged the support of the print as well as the electronic media in raising the status of snooker. He didn’t make a mention of digital media, however.

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Nadeem Omar’s jackpot for snooker world champion

By Syed Khalid Mahmood
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

World snooker champion, Mohammad Asif, received an unexpected jackpot when Nadeem Omar, a sports promoter and philanthropist, presented him a cheque of Rs two million in a ceremony organized in his honour by Omar Associates at the Karachi Gymkhana on August 26.

The hurriedly arranged function, which was planned less than 48 hours ago, brought broad smiles on the face of the Faisalabad-based Asif for whom it was the single biggest purse to be received after bringing home the world title last December. 

Alamgir Anwar Shaikh, President, Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), eulogized Nadeem Omar for his sporting act of honouring the snooker world champion in such a splendid manner. 

“Hats off to him for choosing to reward our world champion so gracefully. We have been made to run from pillar to post to procure the cash awards announced for Asif by the various other personalities but Nadeem Omar stands out not only for the amount of money but also for the admirable manner in which he has done so,” the PBSA President recognized. 

Alamgir Shaikh made a special mention of journalist Nabeel Hashmi for having played the pivotal role in making the award possible for the world champion. 

Nadeem Omar, who has been more famous and active in the cricketing circles, having served as the Vice President of the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) besides managing the Omar Associates and the Omar Cricket Club, paid glowing tribute to Asif for earning glory for the country. 

“There was a time when Pakistan held four world titles simultaneously. But right now we only have one title which has been made possible by Asif. We should encourage our national heroes in order to let them perform even better at the international stage to earn more glories for the country,” he remarked. 

 “I became concerned to know about Asif’s plight in getting the rewards which were announced following his triumph in the World Snooker Championship. I also read in the newspapers of him being not able to pursue his professional goals due to financial constraints. This is our token contribution to the national cause,” Nadeem Omar stated. 

“I do hope that Asif will fulfill his dream of transforming into a professional from being an amateur. He has tremendous potential. He is young and energetic. I am confident that he will continue earning glories for himself and the country. Let’s continue extending him the desired support,” he added. 

Asif, in his brief speech, acknowledged the national spirit of Nadeem Omar and expressed the hope that others will derive inspiration from him for the sake of sports. He also thanked the PBSA for facilitating him. He reiterated his desire to enter the professional snooker circuit. 

“It’s my dream and I will fulfill it soon,” he declared. The luncheon ceremony, which began at 2.30 pm, was attended by the top officials of the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) which included its Senior Vice President, Abdul Wahid Qadir, and Honorary Secretary, Munawwar Hussain Shaikh.

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World champion Asif pockets Asian 6-Reds snooker crown

Pakistan News & Features Services

Pakistan’s world champion Mohammad Asif made amends for his early exit in the Asian Snooker Championship in Karachi a few weeks earlier by pocketing the 2nd ACBS Asian 6-Reds Snooker Championship 2013 at Doha, Qatar, on May 27.

   

Asif overcame a spirited comeback from the dangerous Aamir Sarkosh of Iran to tame him 7-4 in the final with the frame scores of 43-0, 48-0, 48-12, 12-36, 30-34, 34-31, 40-9, 0-41, 0-41, 54-4, 41-13. 

It was in the fitness of things that the final was played between the only two unbeaten cueists of the competition in which a total of 37 cueists from 16 countries of Asia took part. The match was wide open after nine frames and it needed something special from the world champion to press home the advantage. 

“I thank Allah for the glory. It is because of him that I have this opportunity and I am happy that I won the tournament. I am happy that I was able to win it for Pakistan. Earlier this year, in the Asian tournament, I was going through a bad patch but then I have recovered well here. This tournament win has boosted my morale,” Asif observed. 

“It is difficult to keep the tempo of the game consistent. After all the opponent also has some ideas plays his game too. He is a finalist, a very mature player also. He has played well over the last year. It was always going to be difficult to beat him so fast. I played well in the first three games. He slowed the game down. Thanks to Allah, I was able to control my nerves and win it. I was 5-2 up and then he made it 5-4. These are moments which make it difficult for a player. It is always good to step out a bit, go away from the game a bit, get relaxed, in such situations,” he added. 

The result meant another major glory for the 31-year-old Asif having annexed the IBSF World Snooker Championship 2012 at Bulgaria, Sofia, less than six months ago.

   

The title victory at Doha meant an added satisfaction for Asif, hailing from the industrial town of Faisalabad, because he was little sad at having toppled compatriot Mohammad Sajjad in the quarter-finals. 

“At some level, there definitely was some sadness because both of us are compatriots, have played in the same place. So when the two come up against each other, it is a different feeling,” he was quoted as saying after the match. 

“I thought that both of us were playing really well in the tournament, and had we not had a match against each other, both of us would have gone still further in the tournament. But it is a part and parcel of the game,” he remarked. 

   

After having blasted Mohammad Shehab of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) 5-1 in the pre-quarter-finals, Asif was particularly pleased to have overwhelmed the dashing Indian youngster Laxman Rawat 6-2 in the semifinals. 

The 21-year-old from Delhi, looking like the dark horse of the tournament, had also won all his three league matches before outwitting compatriot Shivam Arora, Afghanistan's reigning Asian champion, Saleh Mohammad Mohammadi, and Thailand's Yuttapop Pakpoj in the knockout games.

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Asif brings world snooker crown to Pakistan after 18 years

By Syed Khalid Mahmood  
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Pakistan have another world snooker champion after 18 years. It was the veteran Mohammad Yousuf who first accomplished the astonishing feat at Johannesburg, South Africa in 1994, and now it’s Mohammad Asif who has done it at Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2012. 

In the interim period, Saleh Mohammad, now having returned to Afghanistan from where he hailed, had come very close to claiming the trophy at Jiangmen, China, in 2003 but fell at the last hurdle. 

It remains to be seen if Asif’s title victory helps in the revival of the Pakistan snooker or not but the cueist from Faisalabad has done his job and deserves to be complimented at having delivered against the heaviest the odds. 

He showed great resilience during the IBSF World Snooker Championship 2012 and his performance in the final, against Gary Wilson of Great Britain, was truly outstanding. He remained unbeaten in the entire competition and didn’t falter even in the crunch situations. 

He did achieve his cherished goal but not before some terribly anxious moments. Wilson, unlike the others, was unwilling to be routed and he fought on to combat the awesome skills of Asif.

The best of 19-frame final, which lasted nearly eight hours, remained open till the end. It was anybody’s game after 16 frames with both the contestants having won and lost eight frames. 

It was down to the last few frames. Asif won the 17th frame comprehensively but Wilson still held a chance of neutralizing the lead. The momentum was with Asif and he made it count by wrapping up the issue in the 18th frame to win the marathon encounter 10-8 with the scores of 36-73, 72-11, 29-67, 3-72, 79-39, 70-43, 27-67, 41-88, 29-106, 78-47, 1-85, 111-1, 64-4. 

Asif’s journey to the final had been hassle-free. He hammered Alex Borg of Malta 7-1 in the semifinals after having Mer Alkojah of Syria 6-2 in the quarter-finals. He was equally ruthless in the pre-quarter-finals having whacked Wael Talaat of Egypt 5-2. In his earlier knockout games, he trounced Vinnie Calabrese of Australia in straight frames after having blasted Yaser Elsherbiny of Egypt 4-1. 

Asif remained undefeated in the league matches, becoming Group H champion after overpowering Shachar Ruberg (Israel), Fabian Louison (Canada), Nadir Khan Sultani (Afghanistan) andAhmed Benraïssi (France). 

He did get an advantage by having topped the group at the end of the league matches which put him among the top four in the reseeding and avoided potentially explosive duels from the dangerous cueists of China and Thailand.

It’s for the second year running when the World Amateur Snooker Championship has been won by an Asian cueist.

Last year it was Hossein Vafaei Ayouri, the teenaged sensation from Iran, who grabbed the trophy at Bangalore, India.  

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Asif crashes in Dubai snooker final

By Syed Khalid Mahmood  
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Pakistan’s premier cueist Mohammad Asif fell at the last hurdle of the 2012 Dubai International Open Snooker Tournament as he was overpowered by the 20-year-old Noppon Saengkham of Thailand in the final at the Dubai Snooker Club on November 10. 

The 27-year-old Asif appeared on course of bringing home their first cue sports title in 12 years but he couldn’t come to terms with the brilliance of the Thailand youngster who won the best of nine-frame final 5-2 with the scores of 61-10, 49-60, 60-40, 69-9, 31-63, 74-27, 64-46. 

Having performed exceptionally well in the semifinals, Asif held the psychological advantage going into the final but after having snatched two of the five frames he ran out of the steam in the decisive phase to lose the duel. 

Asif had produced stunning performance in the semifinals less than 24 hours ago as he whacked the dangerous Andy Lee of Hong Kong in straight frames. 

Saengkha, however, played superior game in the final and there was not much Pakistan's top cueist could have done to prevent the inevitable.

His defeat in the final meant Pakistan will have to wait longer for another cue sports title. After Mohammad Yousuf’s victory in the World Championship in 1994 and the Asian Championship in 1998 and Shaukat Ali’s gold medal in the individual event of the Asian Games in 1998, it was Mohammad Shafiq who clinched a regional title in 2000. 

Pakistan’s second participant, Asjad Iqbal, had crashed in the quarter-finals after having performed impressively in the league matches. He was knocked over by Lee whom Asif overwhelmed in the semifinal.

Saengkham, having outwitted Karam Fatima of Syria 5-3 in the semifinal, continued his brilliant form in the final to earn another title for Thailand, having emerged as the most powerful cue sports nation of Asia. 

The top 32 cueists of Asia belonging to 11 countries entered the competition. As many an as 16 of them were eliminated after the first round of league matches with the top 16 battling it out in another league round. 

Eight cueists were left in the arena for the knockout games and the line-up featured two qualifiers each from Pakistan, Thailand and Syria and one each from Hong Kong and hosts UAE.

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Cueist Asif contracted by Langnese

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

The reigning national champion Mohammad Asif, who successfully defended title by whacking second seed Asjad Iqbal in the final of the Langnese 4th Snooker Cup Ranking Tournament 2012 here at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Sports Complex a few days ago, has been rewarded with a one-year sponsorship deal. 

The 27-year-old Asif, hailing from Faisalabad, will be getting a stipend of Rs10,000 per month for the next one year from Anjum Asif (Pvt) Ltd, the manufacturers of popular brands Langnese and Del Monte. 

“Asif, who will represent Pakistan in the World Snooker Championship next month, has turned out to be most consistent cueist during the last one year and we would like to see his graph going further up. He deserves the encouragement to sustain his solid performance,” the company’s Managing Director, Anjum Nisar, remarked while confirming the deal. 

“We have been one of the supporters of the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) for the past few years, having sponsored a national ranking tournament every year. Before taking Asif in our folds, we had a similar deal with Imran Shahzad, then the number cueist of the country, for a couple of years,” he added. 

Anjum Nisar, who is a former President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI), stressed that cue sports need a lot of sponsorship support for its sustenance and development. 

“The PBSA has done an excellent job by securing a piece of land from the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) for the purpose of setting up the first-ever snooker academy in the country. The Association needs to be supported in their efforts for building the academy,” he stated. 

“Our company has already announced a token contribution of Rupees one lac and we would mobilize our resources in the KCCI to generate substantial funds for the snooker academy project,” Anjum Nisar promised.

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Asif turns tables on Asjad to retain Snooker Cup

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

It’s not often of late when Pakistan’s top two cueists manage to force their way into the final of a national ranking snooker event but Mohammad Asif and Asjad Iqbal did it during the recently concluded Langnese 4th Snooker Cup Ranking Tournament 2012 staged at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Sports Complex in Clifton, Karachi. 

In fact these two cueists, both of whom have now earned the right to represent the country in the IBSF World Snooker Championship 2012 due to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, next month, have developed a rivalry of sorts and it was top seeded Asif from Faisalabad who turned the tables on Asjad from Sargodha in the final to retain the trophy he had captured at Karachi’s Southend Club last year. 

Asif, 27, who was at the receiving end in the knockout games of the last couple of national ranking tournaments earlier this year, turned the table on Asjad, 23, decisively in the best of 13-frame final, winning it 7-1 in a matter of three hours. 

Dr Syed Mohammad Ali Shah, Sindh Sports Minister and President, Sindh Olympic Association (SOA), who was the chief guest in the prize distribution ceremony, expressed his delight at the allotment of a piece of land for the development of a snooker academy in Karachi. He considered it as the realization of one of his dreams. 

Anjum Nisar, Managing Director, Anjum Asif (Pvt) Ltd, and ex-President, Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI), presided over the function and in his brief speech he lauded the role of the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) in the development of cue sports in the country. 

Alamgir Anwar Shaikh, President, PBSA, in his welcome address, acknowledged the support of the sponsors and the hosts besides making a mention of the media and his colleagues in the Association. 

The tournament offered Rs 165,000 in prize money with champion Asif receiving Rs 70,000 and runner-up Asjad getting Rs 40,000. The losing semifinalists, Sohail Shahzad and Shehram Changezi, were entitled to Rs 15,000 each while the losing quarter-finalists, Mohammad Javed, Mohammad Sajjad, Umair Alam and Shahid Aftab, were compensated with Rs 5,000 each. 

Shahid Aftab, a former national champion from Faisalabad, clinched the cash award of Rs 5,000 for registering the highest break (133) of the tournament. Mohammad Sajjad (118), Imran Shahzad (116), Umair Alam (114), Sohail Shahzad (102) and Shehram Changezi (100) were the only other cueists to have chalked up a century break during the course of seven-day event. 

The tournament was contested by the top 24 cueists of the country, who were divided equally in four groups for the first round. 

As expected many close league matches were witnessed for four days and quite a few fancied and seasoned campaigners could not force their way into the knockout stage, which started with quarter-finals. 

None of four most experienced cueists on the circuit, Mohammad Yousuf, Naveen Kumar Perwani, Khurram Hussain Agha and Imran Shahzad, managed to make it to the last eight.

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Asif makes a comeback in Test cricket finally

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Mohammad Asif, the tall Pakistan fast bowler, has finally resumed his Test career. Although he didn’t look all that menacing on the opening day of the first Test against New Zealand at the University Oval in Dunedin but his immaculate line and length tested the home batsmen and he should be happy for having picked up three wickets on his first day of return.

In fact he came very close to finishing the day with a haul of five wickets. Umpire Simon Taufel had answered in affirmative when the fast bowler appealed for leg before against Brendon McCullum after beating him with an off-cutter in the final over of the first day’s play.

With the Umpire Decision Review System in place, the verdict was challenged by the batsman and the television umpire, Rudy Koertzen, disagreed with the judgment of his on-field colleague and it was subsequently reversed.

Swinging the ball appreciably, he had earlier in the day narrowly missed the scalp of Ross Taylor. The off-cutter had hit Taylor just outside the line and umpire Billy Doctrove turned down the appeal. Pakistan then referred the appeal to the television umpire that wasn’t successful either.

Asif has made a comeback to Test cricket after a couple of years. After having shown a lot of promise in his early years he has been laid low by the drug-related controversies having jeopardized his career.

Although he is nearing his 27th birthday now, he remains confident to make up for his long absence from the international arena.

"I have not played in New Zealand but have heard a lot about the pitches and conditions there and hopefully if I can get a chance I will make an impact. The key is to focus on just cricket and try to make up for lost time,” he was quoted as saying after his inclusion in the Pakistan squad for the Test series against the Black Caps.

He could not participate in the preceding series of One-day Internationals and the Twenty20 Internationals against New Zealand because they were being staged in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where he was stopped at an airport last year when a small quantity of a banned substance were recovered from his possession.

Asif, however, had made his return in international cricket by making the cut in the ICC Champions Trophy held in South Africa prior to the limited overs series against New Zealand in the UAE.

He was not played in the first couple of games but he an impression right away by claiming two wickets in the encounter against Australia, the eventual champions. He bowled quite superbly in his last spell and came very close to engineering an unlikely win for his team.

Asif has shown that he’s very much capable of producing the goods but what remains to be seen if he would be able to do it consistently at the international level.

With Pakistan due to play a lot of international cricket during the next one year, he has to play a key role in the fast bowling department. He may have lost some pace but his incredible control over line and length can still do the business.

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