After making a successful debut at the inaugural Asian Beach Games in Bali, sepak takraw will be pushed beyond Asia as the Asian Sepak Takraw Federation (ASTAF) proposes the sport to the Olympics.

ASTAF President Abdul Halim bin Kader said he would propose that sepak takraw be played at the world's largest multisport event in 2020.

The availability of competent and motivated technical officials has contributed to the success of the tournament in Bali, Abdul Halim told reporters Thursday.

"With such a success, we are planning to introduce the sport to the Olympic Games in 2020. Starting now, of course, we have to promote the sport in order to fulfill the requirement that 75 to 80 countries play sepak takraw, as requested by the International Olympics Council."

Abdul Halim said today 45 countries worldwide play sepak takraw.

"To double the number of countries, we have a promotions program urging each country that already plays the sport to ask another to join the club."

Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore have the strongest sepak takraw teams, Abdul said.

"It's reasonable that 20 coaches from those countries will be sent off to undeveloped sepak takraw countries to support the promotion program."

As part of his campaign, Abdul Halim has produced a sepak takraw manual book to be distributed throughout the world. The book, written by Abdul Halim and ASTAF secretary-general Boonchai Lorhpipat, is available in English, Thai and Hindi.

"Hopefully, through this manual book, more and more people will be aware and willing to learn how to play sepak takraw," Abdul Halim said, adding that sepak takraw would be played as demonstration sport at the World Games in Taiwan next year.

Sepak takraw, which traditionally uses a rattan ball for indoor matches, was adjusted for the Games. Here, beach sepak takraw is being played with a ball made from rubber and plastic. The rubber ball is more likely to retain its shape, Games competition manager Tirowali said.

"Rattan balls easily change form depending on the humidity."

To gain media and public interest, the federation will change the players' attire to be more like that of the beach volleyball, Abdul said.

The federation meeting in two months is expected to talk about the issue at greater lengths, he said.

"Maybe for the men, they could war some for of sleeveless shirt, while the women could sport small sleeveless shirts, all with short pants."

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