Billiards: Asia’s top cueists to compete at top dual international in Sri Lanka

Fifty five top players comprising of 23 in the billiards and 32 in the U21 snooker in the Asian region involving 12 countries will be in action from March 1 to 8 when they vie for the 15th Asian Billiards title and the 17th Asian U21 Snooker title conducted by the Billiards and Snooker Association (BASSL) of Sri Lanka with the blessings of the Asian Confederation of Billiards Sports which is scheduled to be played at the Hotel Ramada in Colombo.

Zuraish Hashim, president BASSL describing the championship said that they have not left any stone unturned and are determined to see the two tournaments end with success.

He added that it’s a great honour for the BASSL to have been conferred with the task of conducting this tournament which is a hectic challenge as the BASSL have to find the finance which was enormous and thankfully they were able to rake in some sponsors. 

Speaking about the sponsors the BASSL president thanked Pyramid, Wilmar and Fortune which has come forward as the principal sponsor for this tournament which is coming back to Sri Lanka after a lapse of over ten years.

In addition Singer, Laughs and Malship have also come forward as the platinum sponsors for which we are grateful and due that we were able to find the finance involving to Rs. 1.2 million which is going to be offered as cash prize money for the winners and runners up.

In the billiards’ championship the Indians are fielding three past winners in defending champion Dhruv Sitwala, the 2014 champion Sourav Kothari and one of the contenders Pankaj Advani who will be looking to win his sixth Asian title.

There is no doubt that Advani who has won a record 15 world titles across all formats of billiards and snooker (time and 150 up format) will be the cynosure of all eyes and also he will be seeking to take revenge from Sitwala to whom he lost in the previous edition when it was held in Beijing, China in April last year.

But Advani the title winner in 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012 is not going to have it easy as he will face stiff opposition from his compatriot Sitwala, Singapore’s Peter Gilchrist a three time world champion and Thailand’s Praprut Chaithanasakun and Thawat Sujaritthurakarn.

The left handed cueist Sitwala the defending champion is the number top seed and Advani is the bottom seed. 

Sri Lanka will be led by 24 time Sri Lanka national billiards champion K.H. Sirisoma and as host has been given the option of fielding eight players in both the tournaments.

The contenders in the junior snooker are Yuan Sijun of China who is the top seed who was the runner up in the previous tournament with the other two players being Cheung Ka Wai of Hong Kong and Ratchayothinum Yotharuck of Thailand.

The participants:

Asian Billiards

China: He Baoying

India: Pankaj Advani, Bhaskar Balachandra, Sourav Kothari, Dhruv Sitwala, Siddharth Parikh

Indonesia: Jaka Kurniawn,  Marlando Sihombing

Singapore: Peter Gilchrist

South Korea: Hwang Chulho, Minhu Baek, Jin Hyug Han

Sri Lanka: K.H. Sirisoma, S.H.M. Aslam, Anil Rohana, Susantha Wickrama, M.M. Mubeen, M.J.M. Thasleem, Jayaratne Silva, Infiyaz Farook

Thailand: Praprut Chaithanasakun, Thawat Sujaritthurakarn, Surya Suwanasingh

Asian Under-21 Snooker

China: He Baoying, Yuan Suun 

Hong Kong: Man Hoi Leong, Ming Wa Man, Yun Fung Tam, Ka Wai Cheung

India: Asutosh Padhy, Ishpreet Singh Chada, Nikhil Rakesh Saigal

Iran: Siyavosh Mozayani, Mohammed Reza Rafieyan, Seyed Shahbaldin Abouzarian

Malaysia: Kok Leong Lim

Pakistan: Abdul Raheem, Muhammad Saqib, Hris Haris 

South Korea: Daegyu Lee, Seeon Kim, Sanghyeok Park

Sri Lanka: M.S.M. Rasheed, M.S.M. Fazil, M. Shamil, M.M. Rikaz, Thaha Irshad, Rameez Nizam, M.I. Imaz, M.F. Nazeem

Syria: Abdul Karim Maksoud, Yazan Alhadad

Thailand: Ratchayothinum Yotharuck, Phuttakaran Kimsuk, Pongsak Chongjairak