Team RP not in roster of Doha caging

The Philippines is not included in the roster of 20 teams led by defending champion South Korea and powerhouse China seeing action in the 2006 Doha Asian Games slated Dec. 1-15.

South Korea, which topped the 2002 Busan Games, is bracketed in Group A with Qatar, Iran and Jordan while China is in Group B with Lebanon, Japan and Kazakhstan, according to the Doha Games website.

The four slots will be contested by 12 other countries divided into four groups of three with the top finishers of each bracket advancing to the second round.

India, Macau and Bahrain are bunched in the first group while Mongolia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan comprised the second group. The third group is composed of Hong Kong, Syria and Afghanistan while the fourth by Kuwait, Chinese Taipei and United Arab Emirates.

The Philippines, which finished fourth in Busan, remained suspended from participating in any FIBA-sanctioned event and in the process of forming a new basketball body, making it impossible to form a competitive team with barely three months to go before the Asiad.

"It’s premature on our part to plan on sending a team in the Asian Games because there’s not enough time to prepare," said Bernie Atienza, a member of the three-man panel laying the foundations of the new basketball body.

"Besides, who are we sending? If we send an hastily formed team, we would be criticized if we couldn’t play well," he said.