Three serious concerns in PH sports

There’s no problem about ticket and pay-per-view sales, so Manny Pacquiao’s chief adviser, Michael Koncz, announced they are doing away with the press tour for the mega-fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. slated at the MGM Grand Las Vegas.

Time, and money, could be put to better use in ensuring the top world boxing rivals would be at their competitive best when they clash in the richest world boxing championship on May 2.

Pacquiao and Mayweather are set to start gym training in the United States today.

Here at home, there seemed no doubt about Pacquiao hitting peak fiery form; but there were serious concerns on how he would be able to crack and solve the defensive puzzle of his vastly superior foe.

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Anyway, while waiting for the mega-bout countdown, two well-informed experts on Philippine sports have voiced their worries over developments on two fronts, the forthcoming Southeast Asian Games in Singapore and the bid by the country to host the Fiba World Cup of basketball.

Here’s Joseph Dumuk, retired former chief national sports statistician, on his fears about the forthcoming campaign in Singapore:

“If June Navarro correctly quoted Chief of Mission Julian Camacho (Inquirer, Feb. 24) that the Philippines, with 400 athletes in 33 sports, aims just to surpass its 7th place performance in 2013 Burma SEAG (29 g, 34 s, 38 b) in this year’s Singapore SEAG (where 402 golds are at stake in 36 sports) then we have a confession of how low Philippine sports have sunk. The goal of getting about 7.5 percent of the total is indicative of how far we have fallen behind. Something must be done to avoid a recurrent mediocrity.”

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Dr. Aparicio Mequi (founding director of the Institute of Youth Sports for Peace), who denounced the defunct Basketball Association of the Philippines for fielding its own national team in last year’s Universiade in Russia, where the University of Visayas lost all its games by an average of more than 50 points, has this to say:

“I leave it to your good judgement to inform the public of the truth. And I hope Sen. Antonio Trillanes, BAP president, will confront the truth regarding the fielding of a competitive national team to the Universiade 2015, scheduled barely four months hence. He can’t forever escape this responsibility to spare the country from further humiliation when we want to project our country worthy of hosting the World Cup of basketball. What is our international credibility if we make the same shameful display of mediocre basketball a year prior to the WCB?”