SPO-BILLIARDS-CCI SPB1

CCI Billiards Classic: Shandilya, Rupesh lead strong field
    Mumbai, Aug 12 (PTI) Former world champions Ashok
Shandilya of Railways and Rupesh Shah of ONGC lead a strong
field of 32 cueists in the Cricket Club of India Billiards
Classic to be played here from tomorrow.
    The other heavyweights who will be seen in action are
Devendra Joshi of BPCL, former two-time Asian Champion Dhruv
Sitwala of ONGC and his teammates Alok Kumar and Saurabh
Kothari, both of whom are also former winners of the Asian
Championship titles.
    The other stronger contenders include former world
championship bronze medallists Siddharth Parikh of Railways
and Dhvaj Haria of Indian Oil.
    The big guns will be joined by leading players from
Mumbai, including Maharashtras top-four ranked players and
Maharashtra junior number 1.
    The 32 players will be drawn in eight groups of four
each and will initially compete in a round-robin league.
The top players from each group will qualify for the knockout
phase starting from the pre-quarter-finals.
    The tournament offers a total prize fund of Rs 3.8
lakh with the champion standing to pocket the top prize of Rs
125,000 while the runner-up would earn Rs 75,000. PTI SSR
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