ESPN Star Sports says they received "no complaints whatsoever from players, coaches or organizers regarding the behavior of Alex Pagulayan" the 2004 World Pool Champion who was replaced by the Billiards & Snooker Congress of the Philippines from the Shanghai leg of the Guinness 9-Ball Tour.
BSCP president Ernesto Fajardo had told Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today that the executive committee had decided to replace Pagulayan with Jeffrey De Luna because Pagulayan "clowned around too much" during his semi final match against Ibrahim Amir of Malaysia in the Singapore leg of the tour.
In a statement issued by ESPN Star Sports public relations executive Dux Carvajal the worldwide leader in sports which covers and telecast the Guinness 9-Ball Tour maintained that neither the sports network nor Guinness requested a change in the player line-up of the Philippines.
However, they did make it clear that ESPN Star Sports "respects whatever decision the BSCP or any local governing body implements."
Despite the claims by Fajardo that they had received complaints both from here and abroad about Pagulayan's behavior, ABS-CBN reported that Fajardo couldn't name a single person who complained.
Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today received an email from an ESPN Star Sports official who was in Singapore during the Pagulayan semi final match who said "everybody enjoyed watching Pagulayan play. The fans simply adored him and ESPN Star Sports and Guinness were duly impressed by his audience draw."
The official said that Pagulayan was one of the favorites not merely because of his skill but also because of his "refreshing entertaining style" in the Asian tour which has become lackluster and monotonous.
In fact YouTube ran a video showing Pagulayan making funny expressions after he played a great safety shot and cut to the fans who were laughing and cheering the little Filipino.
