The sport of pickleball is relatively unknown to the country but thousands of miles away, in the United States, pickleball has gained a lot of ground and has become the fastest growing sport there amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.The Cebu City Sports Commission, along with Cebu Pickleball Association and Global Pickleball Ambassador Rodel Chiu, hopes that Cebu will be infected by the pickleball craze as they’ll introduce the sport to Cebu this month through the Pickleball Fever 2022 event on June 15 at the G2G Sports Center on Osmeña Blvd., Cebu City and on June 25 and 26 at the City Wing Atrium in SM Seaside City Cebu.“We are giving them an alternative sport. It will be a good cardio exercise and great group dynamics. The beauty of sport is that it’s inclusive to gender and age and that it’s fun to play. Anybody can pick up a paddle and hit the pickle ball. We hope that Cebu becomes ‘Pickleball Capital of the South.’ We hope to bring it to every barangay and take this to another level,” said Chiu, who is on a Philippine tour to promote the sport.The Pickleball Fever 2022 features Chiu, pickleball juniors pro player Raphael Chiu and international pickleball instructor Ken Cuaderno. They will be having a clinic for intermediate and advanced players, hold exhibition games and have a beginners’ demo and fundamentals.“It is a very popular sport in America that we will bring here. This month is very important because we will introduce pickleball with the arrival of our Filipino friends from America. The goal is to help promote the fast-growing sport in America here in Cebu. We will introduce the sport this month. Almost all ate not familiar with the sport yet. We’ll let the Cebuanos see it and try it, that’s why we’ll be in the malls. It’s easy to learn if you have a background in racket sports. Hopefully it will boom. We’ll see if there will be a pickleball craze,” said CCSC chairman John Pages.Cebu Pickleball Association’s Arnel Arsenal believes that Pinoys are built for pickleball with our size and agility.“We Filipinos are agile and can easily adapt. We have a huge potential to compete at a high level in this sport.”