Thailand's National Sport

[laolover88]

I have been minded by the sight of Phuket Beach Games, which are not my idea of beach games at all, which require both the cover of darkness and a large airborne bat population if my memory of Phuket is reliable, to consider what is, or should be Thailands National Sport.

Football, or Association Football can I believe be traced to a variety of peasant games!! I gather it is still quite popular around the world, though has been atrociously modified by Australian Rules and Gaelic football. And, for the most part, Asian nations can not play it.

The United States has developed three games: Baseball, American Football and Basketball which no-one else wants to play. Mainly as a result of a shortage of 2m tall or 300lbs people. No-one is seriously taking on Japan when it comes to Sumo. The British Empire managed to persuade various colonials to play cricket, which became wildly popular in the colonies when it was discovered that a cricket ball could be made to behave in ways never seen on an English lawn.; though how Pakistanis became expert Squash players remains something of a mystery to me (as is the explanation of why croquet is not lauded for the vicious game it is).

Indonesians play Badminton. Russians breed ladies with unimaginably long legs to jump. Countries with snow: Canada, Scandinavia, Austria etc have turned to Ice Hockey, all sorts of Skiing etc

There is the slightly strange phenomenon where countries other than those once under the sway of the British....France, Argentina, Italy, Fiji, Samoa have embraced Rugby.

Many of these games are embraced with a national passion. And indeed I have also been watching with interest on TV Kwai Fighting, where the buffalo wander around, hiding behind trees, for a long while, without doing much. I dont think that is the answer..

So what is to be done about Thailand? Muay Thai and other kick boxing exploits hardly count. Games where the purpose is to beat the hell out of each other are not really attractive, (are they)? Anyway they are just an extension of normal life. I suppose somewhere there may be a World Tai Chi Championship, but I have yet to find it.

So: What Sport could become Thailands own? If it does not exist maybe we have to invent it?

[AYJAYDEE]

just because you dont enjoy martial arts doesnt mean muay thai isnt legit. and baseball and basketball not popular in other countries? lol. you should get out more

[Eliot Rosewater]

Poorly written, extremely dubious statements; a load of crap really.

[DP25]

The United States has developed three games: Baseball, American Football and Basketball which no-one else wants to play.

Baseball in the most popular sport in Japan, Taiwan, Venezuala, and a bunch of central American countries. It's the second most popular in a few more like Mexico and Korea.

Basketball is extremely popular in the Baltics, Balkans, Spain, Argentina, and CHINA.

American football, well you got me there. But Rugby and Aussie rules are similar variants that are extremely popular in other countries.

So: What Sport could become Thailands own? If it does not exist maybe we have to invent it?

It already exists. The sport in which they are the best in the world at, is Sepak Takraw. It is extremely popular throughout Thailand, and is popular in a number of other SEA countries as well. Thais are dominant in the sport though.

It's really an amazing sport. Super fun to watch, but I could never hope to play.

[TooPoopedToPop]

Poorly written, extremely dubious statements; a load of crap really.

Agreed.

Clueless post. The OP doesn't know what he's talking about.

[StreetCowboy]

The armed forces in Thailand all play rugby. Their team is amongst the best in ASEAN.

Thailand's ladies' cricket team stand head and shoulders above their neighbours (not literally), and there is a nascent rugby league competition.

Perhaps if the OP paid more attention to what was going on around him, he wouldn't attract so much abuse. Perhaps the pub would be better for threads of this intellectual rigour

SC

Edited November 7, 2014 by StreetCowboy