Pankaj Advani

Calcutta: For the first time such an effort is being made in cue sport in these parts.

The Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI) is organising the Rexello Castors Indo-Pak Peace Snooker Cup in association with Chandigarh Club in Chandigarh from June 17 to 20.

“To kick off the meet, we are planning to hold an exhibition match on the opening day between world No. 1 Pankaj Advani and No. 2 Saleh Mohammed,” BSFI secretary C. Kapoor told The Telegraph on Tuesday.

Last year, Advani had pipped Mohammed in the world snooker championship final to lift the title in Beijing.

Former world billiards champion Manoj Kothari will be the tournament director while the event will see Alok Kumar, Yasin Merchant, Rafat Habib and young prodigy Manan Chandra, apart from Advani. Michael Ferreira will be the delegate-cum-coach of the Indian contingent.

Advani, Kumar and Merchant will take part in the Peace Cup, just after returning from the Asian snooker meet in Jordan. The meet will be held from June 5 to 12.

The Pakistani team has no dearth of talent with big names like Mohammed Yousuf, former world and Asian snooker champion Khurram Agha, their top-ranked cueists Naveen Perwani and Imran Shezad. Ali Ashgar Valika will be their delegate-cum-coach. Of course, Mohammed will also be there.

“The matches will be played over four days with the first day being reserved for a special and unique Peace Match. This will be a doubles match in which there will be one Indian and one Pakistani player in each team,” Kothari informed.

The competitive leg of the meet will be held over three days — June 18, 19 and 20 — during which three tests will be played, one on each day. Each test will comprise of five Singles and two doubles matches. The team that wins the first two tests will win the Cup.

There would be a draw of lots to select the players for singles and doubles matches and all matches would be best-of-three frames affairs. A total of Rs. 3,00,000 in prize money will be up for grabs.

Earlier in 2003, a grand pool and snooker championship at Lily Resorts, Jalandhar, was organised which aroused enthusiasm among the fraternity and was a great success in which all the top Indian players participated.