Advani, Gilchrist headline CCI Billiards Classic

Pankaj Advani

Five foreign cueists - Peter Gilchrist of Singapore, a winner of multiple world titles, Englishmen David Causier, a seven-time world champion, Peter Sheehan, Chris Taylor and last year's runner-up Rob Hall - have confirmed their participation for the Rs 10.15 lakh prize-money CCI Billiards Classic to be held at the Cricket Club of India's Sir Wilson Jones billiards hall from March 21.

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Pankaj Advani, the country's most decorated cueist and reigning champion, who has 27 world titles, leads the India line-up along with India No. 1 and current national champion Dhruv Sitwala, national runner-up Sourav Kothari, Maharashtra No. 1 Mahesh Jagdale and former world champions Ashok Shandilya and Devendra Joshi to name a few.

The 24 top players will be joined by eight qualifiers in the main draw and the 32-man line-up will be divided into eight groups of four each for the initial round-robin league phase. The top two from each group will progress to the knockout rounds.

The winner's cheque is a whopping Rs 2,50,000 while the runner-up will take home Rs 1,50,000 besides glittering trophies. Losing semi-finalists (Rs 75,000), quarter-finalists (Rs 40,000) and pre-quarterfinalists (R15,000) will also bag cash prizes.