DOHA: Vodafone Qatar will be the main sponsor of the much more exciting 7th Basketball Cup 2010 of Pinoy Basketball of Qatar (PIBAQ) set to start on October 22 this year.

Vodafone Qatar decided to forge a partnership with the PIBAQ after learning that the premiere basketball league has already gained wide popularity in the ever growing population of Filipinos in Qatar now estimated to have reached 250,000.

“The Filipino community is very important to us. We’re setting up a call centre in Manila that will be able to service our thousands of  Filipino customers in their own language and offer many services like great calling rates to the Philippines which our Filipino customers are enjoying. Sponsoring PIBAQ is another great way of reach the Filipino community in Qatar,” said Firoze Bhorat, Head of Marketing Communications, Vodafone Qatar.

Pat Carido, PIBAQ President, said the advent of Vodafone to the league is expected to draw more Filipino basketball fans to watch the weekend games since it came at a time when they decided to offer a more competitive two-category tournament with an improved officiating management.

Friday games will be a full day for the bigger tournament this year since more teams have already signified their intention to participate in the Open Category and Division B as more pool of Filipino talents who excelled in various collegiate, amateur and professional leagues back home are expected to slug it out in the exciting competitions.

Carido said the 7th PIBAQ-Vodafone Qatar Basketball Cup 2010 would be a step higher for their league since they introduced improvements in the officiating at the hard court including the entry of foreigner referees officially commissioned by Qatar Basketball Federation (QBF).

“ We want to do this to give our ever loyal patrons the enjoyment of their favorite past time they deserve now that we already gained respect for being formally recognized as the foreign partner in the Middle East, the official tournament in Qatar of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, Inc. (SBP),” Carido said.

In response to the growing demand of more teams intending to join this season, PIBAQ has offered the participating teams a hand to choose in the two categories according to the capability and competence of their players.

According to PIBAQ rules, there is no height limit in the Open Category and teams can have players play for them as long they are carrying Filipino Passport. To date, there are already six teams mostly regulars in the past season that signified to participate.

Division B would not be left out to watch for the fans since the Philippine School Doha (PSD) and Philippine International School Qatar (PIS) will be among the 12 teams that will join in the league. The same rules apply to this category except for the height limit of six feet below.

THE PENNSULA