BEIRUT (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Asian Qualifiers) - Rustam Yargaliy is going to be more excited than ever to play a basketball game on November 27, when he arrives at the SK Velotrack arena.

At the same venue where he plays for the Astana team, Yargaliy will don his Kazakhstan national team shirt and take on Iraq in the country's first FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifier to be played at home.

Instead of making brief appearances in the game as he normally does for Astana, the 30-year-old will play a lot.

"At our clubs, we have foreigners that play more minutes but now, this will be a competition for our players to play in front of a home crowd," he said. "I really hope that our players have a chance to show their level."

Yargaliy can hardly wait for the World Cup Qualifiers to begin

Several members of the Kazakhstan side at the FIBA Asia Cup are on the books of Astana. In addition to Yargaliy, there are Denis Degtyarev, Anton Ponomarev, Alexander Zhigulin and Maxim Marchuk.

The World Cup Qualifiers will represent an opportunity for each.

"Now they will have more chances to prove themselves and represent the country," Yargaliy said.

The captain of Kazakhstan, Yargaliy expects the fans to be fired up about the new system of competition.

All of our players are really excited about the new system of competition because it's a great chance for us to show our country, our performance level and what Kazakhstan basketball is all about.YargaliyYargaliy

"I think our people in Kazakshtan will be excited because it's a new page in history," he said.

Kazakhstan, who were not at full strength and did not show their best form at the FIBA Asia Cup, nevertheless got a charge out of taking part in the 16-team competition. Not only did they get a chance to face one of the newcomers to Asia from Oceania, New Zealand, on opening day but they also got an opportunity to take on Lebanon.

The fans were loud and supportive of the Cedars and Yargaliy was outstanding. He lit up the scoreboard with 23 points.

Kazakhstan will also go up against Qatar and Iran in the World Cup Qualifiers.

"I do think we'll have good chances to qualify for the second stage," Yargaliy said. "We were missing some key players at the FIBA Asia Cup so they will be at those games and that should help and we will perform better. We also have a change of our basketball generation. So now everyone is excited and waiting."

For Yargaliy, it will be the first time he plays in a meaningful, competitive game on home soil. 

"All of our players are really excited about the new system of competition because it's a great chance for us to show our country, our performance level and what Kazakhstan basketball is all about," he said.

FIBA's new competition system puts players first by reducing their workload, with the average reduction worldwide measured at 26% and the figure increasing to 38% for the Asian region alone.

The new format - which comes into effect in November and sees teams battle to qualify for major tournaments such as the FIBA Basketball World Cup, Olympic Games and Continental Cups - brings with it a significant scaling down of the preparation time required for qualifying games but at the same time presents players, national teams and national federations with the great opportunity of having official games more regularly throughout the year.

FIBA