Focus on small Snooker-countries - Part 4: Asia M-Z

Hello my dear readers,

as I was a little sick, and had some real life to deal with as well, it took a while until I was able to write, what you are reading at the moment. Its the second part on my focus on snooker players from Asia. The first part you can read here. (it was about players from Bahrain, Cyprus, Hong Kong and India).

So here we go:

Malaysia

Malaysia had a main tour player in 2005/06: Moh Keen Ho, who qualified by winning the Asian junior title 2005 at the age of 18. He remained without win though, while his best result was a 7:9 defeat to Welshman Paul Davies. A little more information and a picture of him can be found here.

Oman

To be honest: I couldn't find out much about Ahmed Basheer Al-Khusaibi. He played at the wildcard stages of the Bahrain Masters 2008, and he maybe would be totally forgotten, if his opponent Marcus Campbell wouldnt have played a 147 against him. But he did and so I list him here, in contrast to the wildcard players from Qatar and Saudi-Arabia at the same tournament. Oh by the way: the match ended 0-5.

Pakistan [updated]

In contrast to Malaysia and Oman, there a couple of notable players of Pakistan: 

Most successful without doubt: Shokat Ali. Although born in England, he played for Pakistan, the country of his parents.

He became pro in 1991 and made it to the Last 16 of the Grand Prix 1998, beating class players like Jimmy White. Three years later, he made it to the Last 16 again - this time at the Thailand Masters - and surprisingly beat Ronnie O'Sullivan (!) there to go for the only ranking quarterfinal of his career, where he lost to Ken Doherty.

In the world rankings he climbed to number 34 in 2003/04, which is his career best. He fell of the tour in 2006/07, but played a few PTCs as an amateur. He also finished third at the World Games 2001 in Japan. Together with Stuart Pettman he owns a snooker club in Preston now.

Mohamed Saijad appeared at the wildcard stage of the Shanghai Masters 2010, where he forced former world champion Ken Doherty to play a decider. In the end the favorite won 5:4. He was also part of Pakistans duo at the World Cup 2011 in Thailand. Together with Sahid Aftab this team achieved a surprise win against Ireland (3:2) and stole Wales two frames too, finishing third in the group stages.

Farhan Mirza was a main tour player in 2000/01, when he won a total of two games (one of them a walkover), reaching the Last 128 of the Thailand Masters and the World Championship.

Shahram Changezi played pretty successful at the PTC3 in 2011/12. He was able to win his two prequalification rounds and then knocked out Adrian Gunnell in the Last 128. His streak was ended by Judd Trump. while he was still able to win two frames. He played in three other PTC events as well, but without such a good run.

Shehzad Iqbal recently competed at the Q School events, but he lost all his three first round matches (the first one with a narrow 3:4 lose though).

Last but not least: Mohammed Yousuf won the IBSF world amateur championships in 1994, as pointed out by Finn in the comments correctly.

Singapore

Keith E Boon Aun achieved one really surprising result, that is worth mentioning here, as he beat Tony Drago 3:0 at the World Games 2005. In the next game he lost 0:3 to Gerard Greene though, who won the tournament later.

He also competed in one PIOS tournament, but lost to Ben Woollaston 0:4. 

United Arab Emirates

Mohammed Shehab was a pro player in 2005/06. He won a total of four games (vs. Liu Song twice, Stuart Pettman and Alex Borg) while he was at the tour, however wasnt able to requalify.

He also appeared at the wildcard stage of the Shanghai Masters 2008, losing to Greame Dott with only 3:5.

There are a couple of other players of the UAE, who played at single PTC tournaments, but without any impressive results.

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well thats it for asia more or less. As I pointed out before, I wont comment on Thailand and China, as there are a lot talented players, which already achived some fame, so that you can inform elsewhere easily about them.

so country up next: i dont know yet :p
but: stay tuned ;)