PAKISTAN’S 1ST 6 REDS SNOOKER EVENT

KARACHI: Six teams from five countries will be contesting the inaugural NJI 6-Red Snooker Championship 2008 that will be getting underway here at the Karachi Club on Wednesday (today).

Hosts Pakistan will be fielding a couple of outfits while a team each from Bahrain, India, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be featuring in the three-day contest, offering handsome prize money of Rs 250,000.

The details about the first-ever 6-Red Championship to be held in Pakistan were revealed by Ali Asghar Valika, President Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), and Tahir Ahmed Managing Director New Jubilee Insurance (NJI), in a media briefing here at the Karachi Club Banquet Hall on Tuesday. The matches will be played on a snooker table donated to the PBSA by the Kochra family.

The star-studded Indian squad, comprising Yasin Merchant, Pankaj Advani and Manan Chandra, was present on the occasion as were the two home teams. The Pakistan A side contains the vastly experienced trio of Naveen Kumar Perwani, Saleh Mohammad and Khurram Hussain Agha, while the youthful Pakistan B team features Vishan Gir, Qasim Kamani and Sultan Mohammad.

Habib Subah, Mohammad Omar and Hamed Dhaif constitute the Bahrain squad while Thailand will be fielding the trio of Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Chinnakrot Yaowannasiri and Noppon Saengkham and the UAE will be represented by Salim Al Salim, Salim bin Dheeban and Humaid Al Dharmaki.

Pakistan A, Bahrain and UAE have been placed in the Group A while the Group B contains Pakistan B, India and Thailand. At the end of the league matches the two top teams from both groups will qualify for the semifinals. The winners will be pocketing a purse of Rs 150,000 while the runners-up will be getting a cash award of Rs 100,000.

Asghar Valika, who is also the Executive Vice President of the Asian Confederation of Billiards Sports (ACBS), noted that 6-red snooker is a version being extremely popular in Southeast Asia, and it made a very successful debut at the 2007 Korat South East Asian (SEA) Games.

“This version of snooker is faster and people really enjoy watching it. With the highest possible break in the 6-red Snooker being only 75 points, players capable of scoring breaks of 40-plus can easily upset those who regularly record centuries. The only difference between the traditional snooker and 6-red snooker is that in 6-red snooker, the number of red balls stacked in a triangle behind the pink is reduced to six balls. All the other IBSF-WPBSA rules apply in the 6-red snooker,” he added.

Date : 27 08 2008
Karachi 6-red: Team India Grabs The Crown
	The experienced Indian team was stretched to the limit by a fighting Bahrain outfit before winning the NJI Pentangular 6-Red Snooker team series final 8-7 in a three-and-a-half hour epic on August 22.
	Needing just two frames to clinch the battle after Pankaj Advani and Manan Chandra have won their matches 3-2 apiece, celebrity Yasin Merchant sealed the fate by winning the decisive frame only after conceding his best of five encounter to Mohammad Omar 2-3. “I’m very happy to win the trophy for India,” Yasin, a former Asian snooker champion, told the gathering at the prize distribution ceremony. Applauding Bahrain, the veteran cueist said he was not expecting such a commendable performance from them. He attributed the victory to the hard work put in by his compatriots Pankaj Advani and Manan Chandra. The 26-year-old Hamed Dhaif tasted the nerves of Pankaj, a former world champion, by snatching two frames on way to going down 2-3. The latter was home 49-1, 14-44, 38-15, 38-33, 21-28. Manan Chandra followed the footsteps of Pankaj and enhanced India’s slender lead to 6-4 by getting the better of Habib Subah by the identical 3-2 margin. The scores were 31-20, 39-15, 60-1, 14-42, 5-39. Yasin, a veteran campaigner, was caught on the wrong foot by his opponent Mohammad Omar, 34, who despite emerging 3-2 victorious failed to save his team from defeat. In the best of five frames clash, Yasin trailed 1-3 (14-36, 73-0, 27-37, 14-50) before bouncing back to do justice to his standing by claiming the last frame 30-14. The victorious Indian team received winning purse of Rs 150,000 and a trophy while Bahrain got runners-up prize of Rs100,000 besides trophy.