Advani, Merchant to tune up for Asians through MIG Club event

Mumbai: Cue aces Pankaj Advani and Yasin Merchant would tune up for the upcoming Asian Snooker Championship in Thailand by taking part in the 3rd Nahar MIG Cricket Club Snooker tournament starting on May 1. Apart from Advani, the second cueist after Malta`s Paul Mifsud to have laid his hands on both IBSF World billiards and snooker crowns, and former continental champion Merchant, almost the entire cream of the country`s cueists are to participate in the Rs 3.10 lakh prize money event. "Except for last year`s champion Aditya Mehta, who is now in the UK playing in the qualifying rounds of pro snooker circuit, all the other top players will be playing," said Devendra Joshi who too is taking part in the 16-player draw."Advani did not take part in the first two years as he does not play in all invitational events. In fact he and Merchant are to leave a day after the conclusion of the tournament on May 1 for the Asian event to be held from May 8-15," MIG Club`s Joshi said at the media conference. The 16-draw field is: Advani, Joshi, Geet Sethi, Manan Chandra, Saurav Kothari, Brijesh Damani, Lucky Vatnani, Kamal Chawla, Alok Kumar, Sandeep Gulathi, Shahbaz Khan, Rishabh Pandya, Merchant, R Girish, I H Manudeo and Gaurav Prabhu.The winner would get Rs 1 lakh and runner up Rs 50,000 and a Rs 10,000 special award is reserved for the player notching the highest break. PTI