KUALA LUMPUR (Mageshwaran's AsiaScope) - The 'P'articipation of the three FIBA Asia teams at the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women to be played in Turkey from 27 September to 5 October should be viewed with two more 'P's in mind - Policy and Performance of individual stars.

The three Asian teams in the fray - Japan, Korea and China, in the order in which they finished at last year's 25th FIBA Asia Championship for Women in Bangkok, Thailand - have had a hegemony over the medals for more than a quarter century at the Asian level. But their results at the world level are at a variance with the stranglehold they enjoy at the zone level.

Turkey 2014, therefore, should be an earnest step to set that record right. Again, I won't be really disappointed if none of the Asian teams win a medal in Istanbul, but I will be terribly depressed if at least two of them don't show even signs of improvement or of heading in that direction.

Of the three, Korea have long decided to keep their main team back at home to play in the 2014 Asian Games to be held in Incheon, Korea (19 September to 4 October), hoping to win a gold medal in front of home fans, but the other two have shown the dynamism in choosing the international competition over the regional festival.

While it may be a tad bit disappointing that Korea have chosen this path of not using the international platform to test their best team, we leave it at that. But Japan and China have shown the clarity in thought regarding their women's basketball program by choosing to send their better team westwards rather than attempting to win at the regional levels.

One heartening fact though is that all three teams will field rather young and inexperienced rosters.

Korea have one of the youngest teams in the field with an average of only 22, while China and Japan are slightly older with averages of 24 and 25 respectively. That by itself should mean that the teams are young, but are here to learn.

The challenges for the coaches of Japan and China are intangible.

On the one hand, both the highly-respected Tomohide Utsumi, at the helm for Japan, and the revered Tom Maher, holding the reins of China, will be pardoned if their teams don't win a medal. "Oh yes we played well even if we didn't a medal" can be used as a convincing argument more often than not.

On the other hand, the assessment of their teams will be done without much numerical analysis and therefore is open to subjective and irritatingly arbitrary debate. "Alright you didn't win a medal, but you could have done this and that" will be an argument that the coaches will find hard to contain, and contend.

The reality, for sure, will be positioned somewhere in between those two arguments. Sifting the convenience from the concrete candor will hold the key to finding that reality.

Collectively Asian teams have won only three medals in the history of FIBA World Championship for Women.

They may well not add to that tally this year. But Turkey 2014 should be taken as a first step towards figuring out how that tally can increase in the near future.

So long…

S Mageshwaran

FIBA Asia

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