Peter Gilchrist of Singapore, winner of multiple world billiards titles and Rob Hall of England will be the star attractions during the Rs 10 lakh prize-money CCI Classic Invitation Billiards (time format) Championship, organized by the Cricket Club of India, to be played at the club’s Sir Wilson Jones billiards hall from April 14 to 20, 2023.
Besides the two foreign participants, the Indian challenge will come from the country’s most decorated cueist Pankaj Advani, who has 25 world titles, Indian No. 2 and current National billiards runner-up Dhruv Sitwala, former world champions Rupesh Shah, Sourav Kothari, Ashok Shandilya, Devendra Joshi and S. Srikrishna to name a few.
At stake is a whopping championship winners’ cheque of Rs 250,000 and a handsome trophy and a runner-up cheque of Rs 150,000 and a trophy. The losing semi-finalist will receive Rs 75,000 each, the losing quarter-finalists will get Rs 40,000 each, the pre-quarter-final losers will pocket Rs 15,000 each and the 16 players from the groups who fail to qualify for the knockout phase will take home a consolation prize of Rs 10,000 each. An award of Rs 50,000 will be presented to the player who constructs the highest break (500 points and over).
A total of 24 players have been seeded directly into the main draw and they will be joined by eight players who will come through after playing the knockout qualifying rounds on April 12 and 13.
The 32 players will then be divided into eight groups of four each and the top two players from each group will progress to the knockout pre-quarter-finals. The initial rounds will be played over a two-hour format.
The players seeded in the main draw: Peter Gilchrist (Singapore), Rob Hall (England), Pankaj Advani, Dhruv Sitwala, S. Srikrishna, Rupesh Shah, Siddharth Parikh, Ketan Chawla, Rohan Jambusaria, Durga Prasad, Aaditya Agarwal, Rayaan Razmi, Dhavaj Haria, Loukic Pathare, Vishal Madan, Sourav Kothari, Devendra Joshi, Ashok Shandilya, Ishpreet Singh Chadha, Nalin Patel, Arun Agarwal, Kamal Chawla, Venkatesh, Mahesh Jagdale.