Pankaj Advani, India’s most decorated cue sports player, with 27 World Championship crowns and the defending champion, has been given the pride of place in the Rs 12.5 lakh prize-money CCI Snooker Classic 2024, organised by the Cricket Club of India, which is scheduled to commence at the CCI’s Sir Wilson Jones billiards hall from Monday, February 19, 2024.
The CCI has proved to be quite a happy hunting ground for the articulate and strong-willed Advani, who last year clinched both the CCI Snooker Classic and CCI Billiards Classic titles. He is expected to face stiff opposition from a strong field of high-quality snooker players from the country and abroad.
Indian National champion Saurav Kothari, former National champion Ishpreet Singh Chadda, currently the lone India participating in the Professional Snooker circuit in the United Kingdom, another former National champion Aditya Mehta, to name a few, are the other strong contenders for the title.
Besides, the Indians stars, a couple of overseas players, which includes World IBSF Masters champion Habib Subah from Bahrain, and a couple of England legends, will also aim to win the championship cheque of Rs three lakh. The runner-up will receive an award of Rs 1.5 lakh. The losing semi-finalists would receive Rs 75,000 each and Rs 40,000 would be presented to each of the four losing quarter-finalists. Cash awards will be given all players reaching the round of 64.
Former women national champion Amee Kamani has also been directly seeded in the main draw.
The other players who are directly seeded into the main draw are Krish Bajaj, Digvijay Kadian, Anurag Giri, Rrahul Sachdev, Shahyaan Razmi, Md. Husaain Khan, Saurav Kothari, Pushpender Singh, Anurag Bagri, Manan Chandra, Laxman Rawat, Dhvaj Haria, Kanishk Jhanjharia, Brijesh Damani, Kamal Chawla, Rayaan Razmi, Mudasir Ashiak, Paras Gupta, Shoaib Khan, Rajat Khaneja, Hasan Badami, Shahbaaz Khan, Faisal Khan, Alfie Lee, Nikhil Ootam,