OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: Facing games cancellations, what will happen to the PBA?
By Eddie Alinea of The Manila Times
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 02 Nov 2020
The doubleheader scheduled last Friday in the on-going PBA Philippine Cup had been postponed. The league announcement suspending the crucial matches featuring Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok against the NorthPort Batang Pier and the title-defending San Miguel Beermen versus sister team Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings didn’t say why those games had to be postponed.
The announcement coming from the Office of the Commissioner only said it did so on the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases' (IATF-EID) until "the new protocols proposed by the body and Department of Health are out in place."
What that new protocols are, the announcement didn’t say. There was no mention, as well, whether there are new cases discovered in the bubble. Earlier last October 25 the IATF-EID also recommended the cancellation of the encounter between Blackwater and Rain of Shine for reason that one Elite player was tested positive for Covid 19.
Said player, it was found out after subsequent texting that the earlier founding was “false positive.” The next day on October 26, while the new finding was still unknown, another game, this time between league-leading Talk ‘N Text was, likewise, put on hold as a precautionary measure because the Tropang Giga were coming off a game against Blackwater a day before.
The new cancellation, Blackwater and NorthPort have two games each that have been suspended. TNT, Rain or Shine and Magnolia have one each for a total of six.
I was writing this piece Saturday morning to catchup with TIMES’ deadline, but as of that time, Commissioner Willie Marcial was still awaiting words from IATF whether that day’s three-game bill where Blackwater was supposed to play Terra Firma, Meralco against Talk ‘N Text and RoS versus Phoenix Super LPG will push through as scheduled.
And so was the doubleheader set last Sunday featuring NorthPort and San Miguel and Barangay and Alaska. With then way the IATF handling the pandemic, it looks like more of their games will have to be cancelled.
After a teleconference meeting conducted by the Commissioner, also that Saturday came a statement saying the bubble will resume November 3 with a revised schedule that included a quadruple header, which was a first in the history of the country’s and Asia’s pioneering pro-basketball league.
The new schedule also revealed that not only one but four-game bill will be played, including that on November 4, 7 and before the elimination round ends on November 11. A pair of tripleheader were set Nov. 5 and 9, while another pair of doubleheader will also be held on November 7 and 10.
“Kawawa ang mga manlalaro sa bago nating sked, but we can’t do anything. Force to good na tayo,” said Marcial. “Ikinusulta naming ito sa kanila at payag naman silang dagdagan pa ang pagsa-sakripisyo nila, matuloy lamang ang ating pagdiriwang ng ating ika-45 na anibersaryo.”
It can be recalled that since the bubbkle stdarated last October 11, no one from among eht 350-member PBA entourage had been allowed out of their temporary home at Quest Hotel and, ergo, haven’t seen their families.
This led basketball fans, the entire local sports community, in fact, to wonder whether the IATF-EID has. as designed, the capacity to bring solutions to numerous problems created by the Covid 19.
Well, by the looks of it, it hasn’t. Look at what’s happening in all countries similarly or even affected more by the deadly virus. Lahat sila pa-konti nang pa-konti an gang kaso ng nahahawa sa sakit, Samantalang tayo ditto, parami nang parami arqaw-araw.
Kailangan pa ba nating magsalita pa?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea of The Manila Times.
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