Iqbal, Sajjad blame format for World Championship omission

Iqbal and Sajjad blame the format of 2010 Snooker Cup for their failure to qualify for the World Amateur Championship.

KARACHI: Cueists Asjad Iqbal and Mohammad Sajjad have blamed the format of the third ranking 2010 Snooker Cup for their failure to qualify for the World Amateur Championship that takes place in December.

The duo, who were Pakistan’s number one and two before the championship, were eliminated in the rounds and hence dropped out of the top two and failed to seal a place for the global event in Syria.

“It’s unfair,” Iqbal, who dropped to number eight in the national rankings after the tournament, told The Express Tribune. “The format created the problem. In the last two ranking tournaments, the top 16 cueists of the country were divided into four pools but this time they made two pools of eight which meant that we had to continuously play seven matches which was very tiring and affected my performance.”

Meanwhile, Asian number two Sajjad, who fell to number four, also said that the format  took a toll on the cueists and made it easier for the lesser known players to defeat the top ones.

“It doesn’t feel right,” said Sajjad. “People who didn’t play well throughout the year get to participate in the World Championship while I worked so hard and I will have to wait another year to prove that I can win the world title.”

Sajjad was the runner-up in the Asian Championship and won the Korat Cup in Thailand earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the 2010 Snooker Cup winner and new Pakistan number one Imran Shahzad has welcomed the change in the format. He said that the change gave players the chance to balance out their performance in the tournament as compared to the old format where a cueist would be eliminated after losing just two matches.

The Pakistan Snooker and Billiards Association (PBSA) President Alamgir Sheikh, who was rooting for Sajjad to do well in the tournament, said that the format should be adopted in 2011 as well. Sheikh said that it is sheer incompetence on Iqbal and Sajjad’s part to complain about the format after they lost matches against weak opposition. The PBSA chief, however, hinted that since Sajjad is the country’s best cueist, he will represent Pakistan along with five others in the Asian Games that will be held in November in China.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2010.