PANAJI: West Bengal Billiards Association has announced the 5th edition of Bengal Premier League from 23rd to 29th April, to be held at the Bengal Rowing Club, Kolkata. The league is sponsored by Natural Products Export Corporation.
Bengal Premier League (BPL) is an annual event of the West Bengal Billiards Association since 2016. However, it was on halt for the last two years due to the Pandemic. This year it has been revived with the grand entry of 41 international title-holders. Padma Bhushan Pankaj Advani is appearing for the first time in this league.
The BPL will be having eight teams i.e. Magic Cannons, City Knights, Cue Magicians, Green Warrior, The Hurricanes, Dianamites, Shooting Stars and Dream Chasers where Internationally acclaimed top-ranked players of the country are participating. From Kolkata – Sourav Kothari, Brijesh Damani, Shahbaaz Khan and others will be in action and from other parts of India, the players joining the league are Aditya Mehta, Laxman Rawat, Kamal Chawla, Manan Chandra, Ishpreet Chadha and many more.
Pradeep Saragoi, President of WBBA, said: “The industry is back to the post-pandemic levels of buzz. Due to the pandemic situation, we were bound to halt it for 2 years but due to the grand success of previous years, we couldn’t resist this time. We are honoured to have three marquee players like Sourav Kothari, Brijesh Damani and Shahbaaz Khan from West Bengal to feature in the event this year. The event will be taking place with 8 teams in total and each match is designed in an innovative format. The total purse will be about Rs 10 lakh this year. We are hoping to see a grand successful one this year also.”
Manoj Kothari, National Chief Coach and former world champion, said: “These two years have been two decades for me without hosting this event. With lots of love and support, we are back this year with a bash. We are overwhelmed to have marquee players with us this year. We have planned a lot of new ideas for the event and hoping to make it a grand one with lots of success like in previous years.”
The tournament will be played in a round-robin format, with the top four qualifying for the semi-finals and final.
