Sports In Asia

Association football and basketball are the most popular sports in Asia. Cricket is the third most popular sport in Asia, and is most popular in South Asia. Other popular sports in Asia include baseball, badminton and table tennis among others. There are also some traditional sports that are popular in certain regions of Asia, such as the South Asian sports kabaddi and kho-kho, and sepak takraw in Southeast Asia. Top sporting nations/regions in Asia include China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

History

Ancient era

Before the European colonisation of the region, many traditional sports were played in different parts of Asia. Various modern board games such as chess, snakes and ladders, and ludo trace their origin to ancient South Asian games, while go originates in East Asia. Many martial arts originated in Asia, with major schools found in South, Southeast and East Asia. Many sports spread across Asia in antiquity; kabaddi was present in both Persia and South Asia, while atya-patya and other traditional games are shared between South and Southeast Asia.
Kite-flying was a Chinese export that likely spread through trade and Buddhist missionary activities. Though they are not directly related, some ancient Chinese sports, such as cuju and chuiwan, bear uncanny resemblances to modern-day sports like football and golf. Competitions on horseback were common, with the Central Asian-origin Mughal Empire having played a role in bringing equestrianism into South Asia; tent pegging was played throughout western and southern parts of Asia, while modern polo was standardised from earlier forms of the game found in British India, which were similar to the ancient polo played in other parts of Asia.

Modern era

American colonisation and Christian missionary activities introduced basketball into the Philippines and China, where it became one of their most popular sports. Baseball became popular in East Asia through American contact in the mid-19th century, and further grew after Japan colonised parts of the region, as Japanese colonies increasingly played their coloniser's sport as a way to prove their equality. Similar phenomena factored into the massive growth of other Western sports in parts of Asia that experienced European colonisation.

After the colonial era ended, Western sports played a significant role in nation-building and connecting different Asian countries together; cricket allowed India to unify its diverse people and conduct "cricket diplomacy" to cool tensions with its neighbor Pakistan, while the Asian Games, inspired in part by the post-colonial vision of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, went on to become one of the biggest sporting events in the world. Table tennis, backed by the Chinese Communist Party as a cheap sport the developing nation could excel in at a global level, became very popular in China.

In the modern day, South Asia is home to the Indian Premier League (IPL - cricket), the second-most valued sports league in the world (behind the NFL) in terms of per-match media rights fees. Some of its traditional sports, such as kho-kho and arm wrestling, have also become professional; kabaddi in particular is growing globally, with Asian countries like South Korea and Iran finding some success in international kabaddi. Asia in general has become more successful at football; the closest that an Asian nation has come to winning the FIFA World Cup is when Korea came in fourth at the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

Basketball

Basketball is popular in a number of Asian countries. FIBA Asia is organized by International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and manages the sport over the region. Major contending nations are China, Japan, Philippines, Iran, South Korea and Taiwan. In China and the Philippines, the sport has a major following comparable to Association Football in Europe.

The Philippines has the best finish in the FIBA World Cup from teams outside the Americas and Europe winning bronze in 1954 FIBA World Championship. Also, the team took a fifth-place finish in 1936 Summer Olympics, the best finish by any team outside the Americas, Europe and Oceania. China has dominated the FIBA Asia Championship since the 1970s while the Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Iran continues to be strong contenders. In women's basketball, the FIBA Asia Women's Championship has been fought between China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

The FIBA World Cup was held in Asia in: 1978 in the Philippines, 2006 in Japan and 2019 in China. In 2023, the Philippines and Japan will once again host the World Cup, along with Indonesia.

The main tournament for Asian basketball clubs is the FIBA Asia Champions Cup, held since 1981.

Association football

The Asian Football Confederation was founded in 1954. They organize several tournaments for national teams, most notably the AFC Asian Cup since 1956 and AFC Women's Asian Cup since 1975, as well as qualifying tournaments for the FIFA World Cup, FIFA Women's World Cup and the Summer Olympics. The AFC Champions League is Asia's premier tournament for clubs, first held in 1967.

The AFC members are split into five regional federations: West, Central, South, East and South East. These federations organize regional football championships.

The most successful Asian countries in international men's competitions have been Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Macau and Mongolia in East, and Iran, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, Syria, Bahrain, Lebanon, Palestine, Kuwait and Yemen in West, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan in South, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan in Central, and Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos in South East. In women's football, East Asian have been dominant, especially Japan, China, South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong and North Korea, Southeast Asian have been dominant, especially is Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Philippines, West Asian have been dominant, especially is Jordan, Iran, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates, South Asian have been dominant, especially is India, Nepal and Bangladesh, and Central Asian has been dominant, especially is Uzbekistan. Asia has been more successful in women's football than in men's football in the continent.

The 2002 FIFA World Cup was hosted jointly by Japan and South Korea. It was the first edition not held in Europe or the Americas. The 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup and 2022 FIFA U-17 women's world cup was hosted by India. The 2022 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to take place in Qatar.

The People's Republic of China hosted the first edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup in 1991, as well as the 2007 edition.

The top five most popular football clubs on social media from Asia excluding China as of 31 October 2018:

Bandy

Bandy is a growing sport in Asia. While traditional in some former Soviet republics, especially Kazakhstan (bandy is the only team sport in which Kazakhstan has captured World Championship medals), it is more or less new in some other ones. President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj invited the Mongolian national team after its bronze medal in Division B of the 2017 World Championship. Japan also reached the semi-final. Consequently, Mongolia beat them in the bronze match. China started to compete in the World Championship in 2015 and the women's national team in 2016. Both Division B of the men's tournament 2018 and 2018 Women's World Championship (in which Japan plan to debut) will be played in China, which will be the first time either tournament is held in a totally Asian country (the area north and west of the Ural River is located in Europe, thus Kazakhstan, where the 2012 World Championship was held, is a transcontinental country). In September 2017 it was announced that an FIB office for development and marketing in Asia would open in Harbin. Apart from the countries mentioned, Afghanistan, Armenia, India and Kyrgyzstan are also FIB members. In the Philippines an attempt started in 2016 to introduce rink bandy. FIB is especially interested in having South Korea join the bandy community. As of 2017 negotiations are ongoing.

Baseball

Baseball is the most popular sport in Japan, where it was introduced in the 1870s and became professional in the 1920s. The Japanese Baseball League was operated from 1936 to 1949 and reorganized into the Nippon Professional Baseball in 1950. Teams have been historically identified with their corporate owners, not where the team is based, and have often relocated to other cities.

Over 50 Japanese-born players have played in Major League Baseball, including Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Koji Uehara and Hideo Nomo.

The Japan national baseball team has won the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classic. High school baseball is also popular in Japan.

In South Korea, baseball was introduced in the 1900s and the KBO League was established in 1982, The South Korean team was the runner-up in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. The Taiwan-based Chinese Professional Baseball League was established in 1989. Like the NPB, these two leagues feature teams owned by major corporations.

Boxing

Boxing is a popular sport in Asia where there is a vast following of professional fights across the region. Its mostly popular in countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Japan, Philippines, India and South Korea. Kazakhstan is the most dominant in professional and amateur level boxing in Asia with 12 World Amateur Boxing Championships