RP baseball calls off Asia Cup hosting

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Amateur Baseball Association (PABA) has followed in Wushu Federation of the Philippines’ footsteps as far as hosting an international tournament is concerned. Luck of financial support has led PABA president Hector Navasero to cancel the supposedly Philippine hosting of the Asia Cup scheduled in later this month. The Asia Cup is a qualifying tournament for the region where the top two teams will earn the right to play in the Asian Baseball Championship slated in Sapporo, Japan in July. “We had hoped to host the Asia Cup which was last held in the country in 1996 but we were unable to generate the needed funds," said PABA president Hector Navasero. Navasero earlier eyed no less than 12 teams to compete in the tournament but it needed some P8 to P10 million to fund the project which the organizers failed to raise from the private sector. The national team have been in deep training for the failed hosting and in fact conducted tune-up games with Chinese Taipei and a Korean club team to post a 3-1 record. The nationals split its exhibition games with Yen High team played at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium, losing its first game, 1-6, before bouncing back with a 3-2 decision in their next meeting. The host team, however, were too powerful against Korean G & E Club team as they won its two-game meeting on 21-1 and 19-9 victories held at the baseball field in Carmona, Cavite. The Baseball Federation of Asia has awarded the right to host the Asia Cup to Bangkok, Thailand and is tentatively set in the last week of May. The Philippines will take part in the weeklong tournament with the nationals eyeing to rebound big against the Thai sluggers after being dethroned as SEA Games champion in the 2007 SEAG edition played in Nakhon Ratchasima Province in Thailand. WFP had earlier announced its decision to cancel the hosting of the 5th Asian Wushu Championships slated this May as they could not raise the needed P5 to P8 million to fund the event. – GMANews.TV