The 34th National Snooker Championship is set to take place later this month and the most decorated winner will not be present. Former World Champion Mohammad Yousuf will not be featured in the upcoming event.

On Monday a Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association spokesman confirmed that Yousuf would not be featured in the Championship. Yousuf failed to qualify in the top sixteen in the ranking chart of snooker.

The spokesman stated: “Yousef was not an automatic qualifier for this year’s Nationals as he had lost his place in the top sixteen last year. He could have re-entered the national circuit by playing the provincial cup which he didn’t do.”

The spokesman went on to say that the PBSA gave advanced notice of their policies as early as the first of last year. They stated only the top sixteen cueists would be directly entered into the competition. The last sixteen spots would be given based on performance at the four provincial cup tournaments.




- 2009-03-03