Word: takraw
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...game's expansion is considered good news in Malaysia and Thailand where, two years ago, the government-funded International Takraw Academy was set up in Bangkok to train both local and overseas players, coaches and administrators. The Thais and Malays are historic rivals and dominate international competitions (at Doha, the Thai team took home four golds and a silver; Malaysia left with two silvers and a bronze); both claim the game as their own, and even split the sport's name between them, with sepak meaning kick in Malay and takraw meaning ball in Thai...
...burgeoning international interest in sepak takraw won't catapult their players into the stratospheric income brackets of a Thierry Henry or Kobe Bryant, but it could turn them into decently paid professionals. At present, a top player in the Thai league, the sport's most developed, will earn a rough maximum of $15,000 for a four-month season. A true god of the game like Thai veteran Suebsak Phunsueb-considered sepak takraw's top player for the past several years-might be able to supplement that with advertisements and media work, but he's still no Beckham...
...Right now, there isn't a nation able to regularly defeat the Thai or Malaysian juggernauts, but they're certainly hoping to. Teams like Burma, where the traditional sport of chinlone requires much of the same skills as sepak takraw, and Indonesia, which has brought in top Thai coach Somkiet Sungsatitanon, will need to be taken seriously in coming years (Burma won three bronzes and a silver at Doha; Indonesia came out with three bronzes). And yet Sungsatitanon is under no illusions about the scale of the challenge before him. "If he were to play Thailand...
...front. Last year, it became the first Western team to reach the quarter-finals in the prestigious King's Cup, an annual tournament held in Bangkok. The players' football skills helped, says Angerhausen: "There's a technical part of football you really can use if you play sepak takraw, and vice versa...
...Canadian promoter Engel reckons that "in 50 years sepak takraw can be like the NBA." Of course, it's impossible to say whether that's a realistic possibility or a devotee's daydream. But we can say this much: the next time sepak takraw features in the lineup of a major international sports event like the Asian Games, there'd better be a lot more than a thousand seats on offer...