In 1935, during the Golden Jubilee Celebrations for King George V, the game of sepak raga was played on a badminton court, in the Malaysian State of Negeri Sembilan. The development of the game was interupted by the war. In 1945 in Penang the net was again introduced and the popularity spread to surrounding areas and then countries. n 1965 Malaysia hosted the South East Asian Peninsular games (SEAP) and sepak raga was introduced. There were lengthy discussion between Malaysian and Singapore delegates, on the one hand, and Laos and Thai delegates, on the other, with regard to the official name of the sport. An agreement was subsequently arrived at and it was decided that the sport would be known as "Sepak Takraw". Sepak means KICK in Malay and Takraw means BALL in Thai word.
Almost every nation that played this game knew it by a different name. In Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, it's called 'sepak raga', whereas in Thailand it's commonly known as 'takraw'. The same game goes by the name of 'sipa' in the Philippines, 'da cau' in Vietnam, 'rago' in Indonesia, and 'kator' in Laos. Since sepak takraw was played and enjoyed in several countries, there were a lot of inconsistencies in terms of how the game was played and judged.
In 1960, representatives from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Lao and Thailand met in Kuala Lumpur to standardise rules and regulations for the game. And after a long and heated debate, consensus was reached that the sport would henceforth be officially called sepak takraw.
They also formed the Asian Sepak Takraw Federation (ASTAF), and translated the rules into English, setting the stage for the first international competition, held in Malaysia in 1965, at the Southeast Asian Peninsular Games, or SEAP Games, the predecessor to today's Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games). This chain of events set the stage for the international development of sepak takraw. However, it was the replacement of the natural rattan ball,