THE duo of Efren ?Bata? Reyes and Django Bustamante are likely to lead the Philippine challenge in the PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool to be held from Sept. 1 to 6 in Manila.

Eddie Hearn, a top executive of Matchroom Sport which conceived and staged the event in 2006, when the Reyes-Bustamante tandem routed Americans Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris, 13-5, to win the inaugural tournament, told www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports that Reyes and Bustamante have the edge when they select the two teams to represent the Philippines as hosts.

The 30 other countries will have only one team each.

?The people would want to see Efren and Django play together and that?s a very important choice that we made to make the people happy,? said Hearn, who added that Matchroom Sport and their Filipino partner Solar Sports are also eager to have one younger team representing ?the real new wave of players coming through in the Philippines at the moment.?

Solar Sports chief executive Peter Chanliong told a news conference at Sports Plus Caf? in Eastwood: ?It?s a format that?s very exciting and we are hoping that the Philippines will enjoy the home-court advantage and pull it off again and prove that we are the best in the world.? Ronnie Nathanielsz