Philippine Billiards: Commentary

Give Me A Break
By Frank Lacambra

The Philippine Open 10-Ball Championship came and went with Filipino pool fans wondering: What’s happening to Philippine billiards?

The question dogged the event even long before it got off the ground. Announcements of the tournament mentioned just about all the important details, except the names of the Filipinos who were participating. Big names add star power to an event and it’s good for the gate. But this time the superstars didn’t show up.

Rather unusual, considering that in times past a tournament like this would have seen a virtual parade of the biggest names in Philippine billiards. After all, the 10-ball is supposed to be a Filipino “invention”, or at least the Filipino variation on the game.

It’s supposed to be a game where Filipino players excel in, given their penchant for complications. And the event was something that shouldn’t be missed. But how come the biggies of the game were auspiciously absent?

Judging from the roster of participants, the Open looked more like a world tournament than a local thing, what with a formidable cast of famous and familiar faces that came from all over to play in the Philippines.

We saw and met, informally, on the sidelines, such pool stars as former 9-ball world champion Thorsten Hohmann of Germany, Corey Deuel and Shane van Boening of the US, Fabio Petroni of Italy and Ricky Yang of Indonesia. We also spotted World No.1 Ralf Souquet (Ger,), Darren Appleton, the reigning 10-ball world champion, women’s world No.1 Jasmin Ouschan, Marcus Chamat of Sweden, Radoslav Babica of Poland, several players from Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia. Well-known women pool players like Kelly Fisher and Melissa Little also showed up to try their luck with the men.

Those folks came all the way to the Philippines, perhaps looking forward to tangling with Filipino big guns. But they never got to see the stars.

What they encountered instead were the would-be stars. Ok, Marlon Manalo, Tony Gabica and Jeffrey de Luna were there, as well as a few guys on the way up. But let’s face it, these new blood are not yet in the league of the Magician, Django, Alex the Lion, or the Alcano the Volcano.

It was Petroni, watching from the sidelines beside me, who asked the question that I’m sure was on every billiards fan’s mind: “How come Efren and the others are not playing?”

The fact that a foreign player noticed something amiss about the tournament should give our billiards leaders food for thought. Again we ask: What gives?

Is Philippine billiards racked with so much disagreements and bad blood that our pool leaders and players cannot even declare a truce for the sake of the game and for the sake of upholding the reputation of the country as the “new epicenter of world billiards?”

This is a sad and unhealthy situation. Because of the squabbling within our billiards establishment, our image as a united, pool-savvy country could take a beating. And it could set back the country’s efforts in drumming up tourism, among other things.

The problem of Philippine billiards recalls an event that happened to chess a few decades back. Almost 40 years ago, the American chess genius Bobby Fischer almost abandoned his world chess championship match with Boris Spassky of the then USSR. Fischer was throwing tantrums in the run-up to the match and making “impossible” demands on organizers.

The US government saw red flags in Fischer’s conduct. In no time, Henry Kissinger, the US Secretary of State, was talking to Fischer. In so many words, Mr. Kissinger told Bobby to “cool it and just take care of business.” Fortunately for the sporting world-at-large, Bobby got the message and simmered down. He agreed to play. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Maybe the Philippine government should step in and get our warring billiards leaders to stop fighting and start playing—for flag and country. But I’m not sure if the chairman of the Philippine Olympic Committee is the right person for the job. He’s got problems himself. But that’s another story.

The thing is, more and more, foreign players are noticing the cracks in our billiards establishment. This is not doing us any good. And certainly, it’s not good for the game.

Note: Readers’ comments are welcome.