GIVE ME A BREAK

By: Frank Lacambra

We hope the war of words between the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines and Alex Pagulayan, one of the brightest stars in Philippine billiards, will not go beyond what it is right now--a war of words.

But we’ve read about something else and it doesn’t sound too good. We’ve read that Pagulayan, has threatened to set up a separate association for billiards players. Now that’s worrying. We hope he hurled that threat in the heat of the moment and didn’t really mean it.

If he goes through with it, we can only see trouble ahead. A break away by the players from the national billiards association would virtually tear apart the country’s billiards community. And the damage could be permanent.

Every effort should be made to patch things up as soon as possible. A good start would be for The Lion, as Alex is known to his countless fans, to tone down his roar and rhetoric and ask for the specific reason or reasons why he was replaced. It’s only right that the BSCP should hear his side.

For its part, the BSCP might consider coming up with a Code of Conduct, or specific criteria to be used for evaluating or rating Filipino players participating in international tournaments—whether they are representing the country or not.

With the Philippines in the midst of preparing to host the World Pool Championship for the second year in a row, the country needs a nasty internal row like it needs a hole in the head.