Travel time big issue for Gilas

MANILA, Philippines — It’s not just limited practice time that worries Gilas team manager Butch Antonio but also the recovery from a long flight to play two days after touchdown. The Philippines’ first game in the second window of the Asia/Pacific qualifiers for the 2019 FIBA World Cup will be against Australia at the Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne on Feb. 22.

Gilas will fly back to Manila from Melbourne on Feb. 23 then battles Japan at home on Feb. 25. The flight from Melbourne to Manila is 8 1/2 hours long. In the third window, the Philippines plays Chinese-Taipei on the road on June 29 then hosts Australia on July 2. Flight time from Taipei to Manila is about two hours so recovery won’t be an issue.

Antonio said travel becomes a more serious issue if and when the Philippines makes it to the second round where the top three finishers from Groups B and D converge for three home-and-away windows. Based on the first window results, the standings in Group B are Australia and the Philippines tied on top at 2-0, Japan third and Chinese-Taipei fourth. In Group D, Kazakhstan is first, Iraq and Iran tied for second at 1-1 and Qatar fourth. 

Assuming the Groups B and D standings hold until the end of the first round, here is Gilas’ schedule for the second round – Kazakhstan on the road on Sept. 13, Iran at home on Sept. 16, Iraq on the road on Nov. 30, Kazakhstan at home on Dec. 3, Iran on the road on Feb. 21 and Iraq at home on Feb. 24. In the first round, Iraq played its home game in Amman, Jordan, for security reasons.

The flight time from Manila to Almaty, Kazakhstan, is nearly 18 hours. It’s 13 hours to Amman and close to 11 hours to Tehran.  In the hypothetical schedule, Gilas will take an 18-hour flight from Kazakhstan to Manila on Sept. 14 then play Iran at home on Sept. 16.

In the Africa qualifiers, FIBA agreed to make adjustments so participating countries aren’t burdened by travel expenses. FIBA set two qualifying windows instead of three and did not require home-and-away games. In Group A, for instance, the first window of three games each was played on Nov. 24-26 with Tunisia, Cameroon, Chad and Guinea gathered in a four-way pocket tournament in Yaounde, Cameroon. The second window will be on June 29-July 1.

In Group B, Uganda, Rwanda, Mali and Nigeria will play the first round in Bamaku, Mali, on Feb. 23-25 and the second round on July 29-July 1. In Group C, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Congo got together in Loanda, Angola, to play the first window last Nov. 24-26. The second window will be on June 29-July 1. In Group D, Senegal, Mozambique, Ivory Coast and the Central African Republic will play the first window in Maputo, Mozambique, on Feb. 23-25 and the second window on June 29-July 1.

Antonio said if FIBA could allow adjustments in the African calendar, perhaps, something could be done to address the issue of long travel time in the second round of the Asia/Pacific qualifiers. If ever, FIBA could shrink the three qualifying windows into two with one venue in a pocket-tournament format.  But the probability is FIBA won’t change the timetable, leaving Gilas with the challenge of recovering quickly from a long flight to play a home game within days of arrival in the second round.