CCI billiards: Gilchrist, Hall top stars; Pankaj Advani to lead Indian challenge

Mumbai, April 3 (IANS) 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 here from April 14 to 20.

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 runner-up Dhruv Sitwala, former world champions Rupesh Shah, Sourav Kothari, Ashok Shandilya, Devendra Joshi and S. Srikrishna.

At stake in the event organised by the Cricket Club of India at the club's Sir Wilson Jones billiards hall is a whopping winners' cheque of Rs 2.5 lakh and a handsome trophy and a runner-up cheque of Rs 1,50,000 and a trophy, the organisers informed in a release on Monday.

The losing semifinalists will receive Rs 75,000 each, the losing quarterfinalists will be awarded Rs 40,000 each, the pre-quarter-final losers will pocket Rs 15,000 each and the 16 players 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 scores 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-quarterfinals. The initial rounds will be played over a two-hour format.

The players seeded in the main draw are 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.