New Delhi, July 18 (IANS): India will host the World Ranking Snooker tournament here from Oct 14 to 18 offering a purse of 300,000 pounds with World’s top 64 cueists along with six from the host nation participating, the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI) said here Wednesday.

The qualifier of this event with 128 teams in fray will be played in England and top 64 cueists would fly to India for this main tournament that is likely to be covered live by “a leading sports channel” from the round of 32, BSFI said in a release.

“We are delighted to be a part of the efforts being made by BSFI to popularise cue sports in India,” said Jason Ferguson, chairman, World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association.

“India has produced several top ranking players in the past and has no dearth of talent and therefore a ranking event of this magnitude would only motivate the promising ones,” he added.

BSFI president P.V.K. Mohan said: “We are excited to host an event of this scale on annual basis to take the cue sports in India to a new phase. Although snooker is a niche sport, we are confident that event of this nature would create large-scale awareness and take the game to greater height in India.”