The ONGC Asian Championship 2012 begins

01 April 2012

The ONGC Asian Championship (11^th English Billiards & 13^th Under 21 Snooker) being played at the exotic locale of the Clube Tennis De Gaspar Dias, Miramar Goa was inaugurated By the Chief Guest, Shri Sripad Naik, Member of Parliament and President of the Goa Olympic Association here on Sunday evening . Participating cueists from 11 countries were among the august gathering which also included Shri V K Mahendru from Oil & Natural Gas Corporation and also Shri Yogesh Nadkarni, the President of the hosting club.

The seven days cue sports extravaganza which begins at Gaspar Dias club overlooking the Miramar beach is expected to be a cracker of competition between 11 countries participating in these championships which have been awarded to the Goa Billiards & Snooker Association for the first time.

In the billiards event, 7 times World Champion, Pankaj Advani leads the charge, closely followed by former champions, Peter Gilchrist from Singapore and Praput Chaitanasakun of Thailand besides the defending title holder, Alok Kumar of India whereas in the coveted snooker event which also begins tomorrow, the pack is led by the Teenage Iranian sensation and the reigning IBSF World Snooker Champion, Hossein Vafaei Ayouri. Hot in his heels will be another talented youngster, Noppon Saengkham of Thailand. India is being represented by six lads, Laxman Rawat, Lalit Dhaiya, M.L. Laxman, Himanshu Jain, Mundir Sherazi and Lalrina Renthlei. Devendra Joshi, Rupesh Shah, Arun Agrawal, and Dhruv Sitwala besides, Pankaj Advani and Alok Kumar will also be keen to make an impression in the sedate, billiards event.

Shabbir Hussain who started officiating of Pakistan, who began his assignment in the International Arena way back in 1991will be the most experienced foreign Referee of these games which include AL Subaei NASSER Abdullah and AL- BAGAN khalid MOHAMMAD from Saudi Arabia officiating for the first time in India as also the mercurial Rocky Chan from Hong Kong. Also two foreign ladies, the petite Iranians, Miss Maryam Fatehi and Miss Haneih Suleiman will be the centre of attraction.

The Indian referees will be led by Ajay Rastogi, R.B. Ganesh, Crazol D'Silva, I.S. Malik and Raja Raman. The matches get under way at the venue from 1000 hours on the 2^nd April, 2012.