With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic still raging on in some parts of Asia, the International Basketball Federation has decided to retain bubble setups for a couple of groups in the 2023 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
For Group A, the home-and-away format will not be implemented for the first two windows. Instead, the Philippines will host a total of eight games on February, 2022.
These games are two Gilas vs South Korea games; two New Zealand vs India tilts; Gilas vs New Zealand, Gilas vs India, South Korea vs India, and South Korea vs New Zealand.
Originally, the Gilas vs South Korea and New Zealand vs India games were going to take place on November 26 and 29.
On the other hand, Japan will host two Group B games of the November window of the Asian Qualifiers in Sendai: China-Japan on 27 November and Japan-China on 28 November.
Both games between Australia and Chinese Taipei will take place during the February window.
The regular home-and-away format will still be used for Groups C and D.
FIBA is still hoping that Groups A and B can return to a home-and-away format by the third window on June, 2022.
