IBL participation to boost Indonesia’s FIBA Asia Cup 2021 qualification chances, says Gozali

JAKARTA (Indonesia) - With the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Qualifiers coming up next year and the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 down the road in the near future, the Indonesia national team are ramping up their efforts to improve themselves. They are also taking a leaf out of the book of their Group A opponents, the Philippines, as a part of that development plan.

The Indonesia national team will be one of the 10 competing teams in the Indonesia Basketball League (IBL) this upcoming season. The league will be tipping off on January 10, 2020.

“The idea was similar to [the Gilas Pilipinas program] initiated back in 2008,” said Hasan Gozali, President Commissioner of the IBL. “The difference is that Gilas had longer time to prepare, so they were able to use [younger players].”

Once a month after the start of league play, Indonesia will play the first of their Asia Cup 2021 Qualifier games against Korea at home. Gozali is hoping that the league can serve as a proper training ground for the team to be ready.

“As a league, we are happy that we can offer the platform for our national team to grow and compete at the highest level while exposing them to our local audiences. Hopefully in this short amount of preparation can help them to prepare for the upcoming qualifying windows games,” he said.

Indonesia has been deep in preparation for a while with notable participation in pocket tournaments throughout these past few months. They are also currently undergoing a training camp in Serbia, getting familiar with the playing style and system of newly appointed head coach Rajko Toroman. Playing in the IBL will be another good opportunity to continue building on the progress gained in the latter half of 2019.

“I hope they can really improve on playing under a good system created by coach Toroman and be able to execute plays seamlessly,” Gozali expressed. “I believe with a good system and hard work; they will have a better chance in international games.”

Not only will the current players of the national team benefit from playing in the league, but all sides involved are also hoping that this program will help in expanding and enhancing the talent pool of national team players, too.

“Since the national team will use most of the best players from each club, teams will have to maximize their remaining players,” Gozali explained. “We will see how each club develops to become a better team without their best players.”

The biggest winners of this whole ordeal?
The basketball fans of Indonesia.

“I believe the league will grow as more fans will cheer for our national team on a regular basis,” said Gozali. “This will be the start of many home games for our national team. this will benefit us as we prepare for 2023 [World Cup]. I believe this is our momentum to build more basketball fan base in Indonesia and this is merely the first step to achieve our biggest goal in 2023. With this unique season on the way, we hope to grow our existing fan base while creating new ones for the future.”

FIBA