Bangladesh players eye last eight berth
Sk Kamal Memorial SAARC Snooker kicks off today
Sports Reporter, Dhaka
The stage is all set for the Sheikh Kamal Memorial 1st SAARC Snooker Championship, which kicks off at Dhaka Club today (Sunday). The tournament of five Aouth Asian nations is being jointly organised by the Bangladesh Billiards Snooker Federation and Dhaka Club. The organizers decided to dedicate the tournament to Sheikh Kamal, the eldest son of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Beximco Group, a leading conglomerate house of the country, is sponsoring the mega tournament, while Impart PR is the media partner. The winner will receive USD 2,500, the runners-up USD 1,500 and the two losing semifinalists USD 500 each.
Foreign minister Dr A K Abdul Momen will inaugurate the tournament as the chief guest at 5pm today. The matches will begin from Monday. Salman F Rahman, private industry and investment adviser to prime minister and vice-chairman of Beximco Group will distribute the prizes as the chief guest on September 6. The five participating nations are India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. The foreign teams are scheduled to start arriving in Dhaka from Saturday night.
The Bangladesh Billiards Snooker Federation (BBSF) secretary general, Syed Mahboob, stated this at a media briefing at the Samson H Chowdhury Centre, Dhaka Club, in the capital yesterday. Dr Md Zahirul Islam, member-in-charge, Billiards Snooker, Dhaka Club, and A A Ibrahim (Kaju), tournament director, also spoke on the occasion.
Syed Mahboob, who is also the former secretary general of the South Asian Billiards Snooker Federation, said each participating nation will be fielding a couple of competitors. However, Bangladesh has earned the right to field four players as the host nation. So, a total of 12 players divided into four groups will be playing in the tournament. The top two players from each group will qualify for the quarterfinals.
The BBSF secretary general is expecting a good result from the home team. It would be good if we could reach beyond the quarterfinal phase. But I firmly believe some of them could make it to the last eight stage, said the veteran organiser.
He admitted that the BBSF could not arrange any special training camp for Bangladesh players for this tournament. However, he is hopeful that the BBSF would get an exclusive national centre for the game away from the city when the government would build a massive sports complex in Purbachal in the near future. Earlier, Dr Md Zahirul Islam and A A Ibrahim gave a brief account of the tournament in their speeches.
AAM Siddiqui, the current Bangladesh national runner-up, and Ziaur Rahman Azad, the former national champion, will begin Bangladeshs campaign simultaneously tomorrow, as they will play in the two opening matches of the tournament at 12 noon.
There will be six matches on Monday in three sessions, and an identical number of group phase matches will take place on September 3. Four quarter-finals and two semi-finals will be played on September 4 and 5, respectively. The final of the six-day tournament will be held on September 6.
Siddiqui will have to face a stiff hurdle in his first match when he will clash with title aspirant Laxman Rawat of India, while Azad will meet a much easier opponent, A M Shrestha of Nepal.
Ziaur Rahman Azad, alias Diamond, while talking to The Independent, said it is unfortunate that they could not have sufficient practice under the supervision of a high-profile coach.
Even we are yet to do training at the newly renovated tournament venue on the Samson H Chowdhury premises. On the other hand, you see the Indian players are busy round the year playing in different tournaments, and thats why they are dominating in game on the international arena.
