Mukthar to officiate Billiards World Championship

Anuradha ABEYSEKERA

Sri Lanka’s veteran billiards and snooker referee Ameer Mukthar has been invited to officiate two major international events, the Billiard World Championship, which is to be worked off in Leeds, England from October 18 to 28 and the World Snooker Championship, scheduled to be held in Sophia, Bulgaria from November 24 to December 2.

Asian Confederation of Billiards Sports (ACBS), the affiliated Asian governing body to the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) has appointed Mukthar as a referee for the World Championship 2012 while IBSF has invited him to take part in the World Snooker Championship in Bulgaria.

Mukthar is an Old Boy of St. Benedict’s College and Zahira College, Colombo was a champion athlete in short distance running and a Stubbs Shield winner in boxing during his school days. He also represented Sri Lanka in both soccer and snooker at the Asian Championship in 1969.

He has officiated number of international and national level billiards and snooker events and is the only Sri Lankan IBSF qualified referee. Mukthar is the most experienced local cue sport referee and hails over a 30-year career as a referee since 1980.

The 63-year old veteran referee has been awarded the highest grade for referees, the Gold class and also an appointed examiner referee by the ACBS.