Wednesday, July 09, 2008 Ramirez: We have no chance in basketball By Lynde Salgados
IT TAKES former basketball coach William "Butch" Ramirez to be a top leader of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) to realize that his favorite event could hardly bring honor to the country when it comes to global competition.
"Whether we like it or not, we Filipinos are lacking in height that it's almost impossible for us to compete globally inside the basketball arena. I've been a basketball coach in college, but sad to say that it is not the right sports discipline for us to develop," said Ramirez during the recent Mindanao Sports Summit in Tubod, Lanao del Norte.
PSC chief of staff Joseph Encabo, who is also project director of the summit and the soon to be revived Mindanao Friendship Games, shared Ramirez's observation.
"We (PSC people) are very supportive to our athletes' cause in the Arafura Games in Darwin, Australia. And based on our experiences there, we have no match against the giants from foreign countries in basketball competition. We need dribblers with an average height of 6-foot-7 to be able to compete with them," Encabo relates, adding "imagine that the US (United States) had only fielded its team B in college to win the championship. We're like a tourist in basketball event."
But even with their strong words of admonition, summit participants still voted for basketball and two more popular team sports such as volleyball and football to be included in the roster of events to be included in the revival of the MFGames on November 10-15 in Tubod, Lanao del Norte.
Badminton and lawn tennis also won majority votes.
Priority events for grassroots development -- swimming, track and field, boxing, taekwondo and chess -- completed the list.
Host Lanao del Norte, however, has the privilege to add one or two more sports.
Cycling, karatedo, judo, table tennis, sepak takraw, triathlon, among others, have not been selected even as these events were part of the 2003 MFG held in Mati, Davao Oriental.
Encabo explained that chess, fondly considered as the most hateful event in the eyes of ordinary mortals, was not originally among the top five core events. But it made the list by virtue of Presidential Executive Order 651.
"It was an order by the top executive of the land that chess as well as boxing must be promoted in all sporting meets in the country," Encabo said.
The MFG was launched in 2001 in Tubod with then Governor Imelda Quibranza Dimaporo. Even her son, Mohammad Khalid -- who is now the governor of Lanao Norte province -- has encouraged the PSC and the soon to be created Mindanao Sports Council to select events for the MFG revival of which the relatively short but talented Filipinos have the great potential to excel in the international level.
