Daily Times

KARACHI: The Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation (PBSF) has deferred the launch of the Pakistan Snooker League for a year as its modalities have not yet worked out. Though there’s no official word from the games controlling body yet, it is believed that the event may now take place sometime next year. It is pertinent to mention that while unveiling the annual calendar at a press conference earlier this year, the PBSF had announced to launch the league from May one to seven. The PBSF had derived the idea from the Pakistan Cricket Board’s Pakistan Super League. If launched successfully, the league besides bringing glamour in the game, can benefit the games controlling body as well as improving the financial status of the cueists.

Most of the top snooker players come from the remote areas of Punjab and other parts of the country besides Karachi and find it difficult to make ends meet after sparing much time for the game. The winner of the national snooker championship earns Rs100,000 while the winners of two other national ranking events gets the purse in five figures. It is pertinent to mention that the national champion used to get Rs1,00,000 purse quarter-of-a-century ago. In addition, the top eight national cueists get meagre monthly stipends.

“We had just one meeting with the event management company and they are expected to give us a proposed draft agreement in the next couple of days in this regard,” the PBSF president Munawwar Hussain Shaikh said. He said the proposed draft among other things was likely to contain duration of the agreement between the PBSF and the firm, appearance money to the cueists and percentage of annual increase, air fare to the foreign players, hotel accommodation and television rights. Munawwar added that the same firm was already engaged in organising the Kabbadi League in Pakistan. To a question, he said the inaugural event was likely to feature teams of eight to 10 cities of the country. Each team would comprise three cueists: two home players and a foreigner.

The PBSF official disclosed that veteran Indian cueist Dherminder Lilly informed him that Indian Snooker League had been launched recently and assured his full support. “It’s the desire of the PBSF that snooker players of the country should be the main beneficiary,” he concluded.