Current national snooker champion Pankaj Advani and Aditya Mehta are among the galaxy of Indian stars who will compete in the CCI Classic Billiards and Snooker extravaganza to be held from May 7 to 21 at the Cricket Club of India's Wilson Jones Billiards Room here.
Apart from Advani, the other formidable Indians who will vie for honours in the billiards competition from May 7 to 14 are national champion Sourav Kothari, India No. 2 Alok Kumar, No. 4 Dhruv Sitwala, No. 5 Rupesh Shah, world bronze medallists Ashok Shandilya and Devendra Joshi, and former world professional No. 7 Nalin Patel.
In snooker competition, besides Mehta, India No. 2 Kamal Chawla who reached the Asian Championship semi-finals, No. 4 Dharmender Lilly, No. 5 Faisal Khan, No. 6 Sundeep Gulati, No. 7 Laxman Rawat and No. 8 Shivam Arora will feature in the event slated between May 13 to 21.
The winner will take away Rs. 1 lakh in the snooker event, while the billiards winner will receive Rs. 75,000. In addition, the semi-finalists, quarter-finalists and pre-quarter-finalists also will receive prize money, a media release said today.
The billiards round robin that will be played in the two-hour format, includes four groups with six players each and the top four finishers from each group will qualify for the pre-quarter-finals.
The snooker round robin that will be played over best-of-five frames includes four groups with seven players each and the top four finishers from each group will qualify for the pre-quarter-finals.
