Sports in Japan are a significant part of Japanese culture. Both traditional sports such as sumo and martial arts, and Western imports like basketball and association football, are popular with both participants and spectators.
The International Baseball Federation is the former worldwide governing body recognized by the International Olympic Committee as overseeing, deciding and executing the policy of the sport of baseball. The IBAF has since become the international baseball "Division" of the World Baseball Softball Confederation, the officially recognized world governing body for baseball. One of its principal responsibilities under the WBSC umbrella is to organize, standardize and sanction international competitions, using the WBSC name, among baseball's 124 national governing bodies through its various tournaments to determine a world champion and calculate world rankings for both men's and women's baseball. Prior to the establishment of the WBSC, which has since superseded its authority, the IBAF had been the lone entity that can assign the title of "world champion" to any baseball team delegated to represent a nation. Its offices are housed within the WBSC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland—the Olympic Capital.
Sport in Ireland plays an important role in Irish society. The many sports played and followed in Ireland include Gaelic games, association football, horse racing, show jumping, greyhound racing, basketball, fishing, handball, motorsport, boxing, tennis, hockey, golf, rowing, cricket, and rugby union.
Sport in the United Kingdom plays an important role in British culture. The United Kingdom has given birth to a large majority of the team sports including association football, badminton, billiards, bowls, boxing, British baseball, rounders, cricket, croquet, curling, darts, golf, fives, field hockey, netball, rugby, tennis, table tennis, snooker, Motorcycle Speedway, squash, water polo, and shinty. Moreover, the standardisation of various sports, such as in rowing, dancesports and motorsports occurred in the United Kingdom.
Sport in New Zealand largely reflects the nation's British colonial heritage, with some of the most popular sports being rugby union, rugby league, cricket, football (soccer), horse racing, basketball and netball, which are primarily played in Commonwealth countries. New Zealand is a small nation but has enjoyed success in many sports, notably rugby union, rugby league, cricket, America's Cup sailing, world championship and Olympics events, and motorsport.
Sports are an important part of culture in the United States. American football is the most popular spectator sport to watch in the United States, followed by baseball, basketball, ice hockey and soccer, which make up the "5 major sports". Indoor soccer, indoor American football, rugby union, tennis, golf, auto racing, softball, lacrosse, volleyball, field hockey, and water polo, among others, are also somewhat popular sports played in the country.
Sport in China has been long associated with the martial arts. Today, China consists of a variety of competitive sports. Traditional Chinese culture regards physical fitness as an important characteristic. China has its own national quadrennial multi-sport event similar to the Olympic Games called the National Games.
Sport in Israel plays an important role in Israeli culture and is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Sport. The most popular sports in Israel have traditionally been Association football (mainly) and basketball (secondly) - with the first being considered the national sport - in both of which Israeli professional teams have been competitive internationally. Israel is an international center for Jewish sport around the world and since 1932 the Maccabiah Games, an Olympic-style event for Jewish athletes, is held in the country. Despite Israel's location in the Asian continent, the Israeli sports associations in various sports belong to the European associations due to the refusal of many Arab Asian countries to compete with Israeli athletes.
Sport in England plays a prominent role in English society. Popular teams sports in England include football, field hockey, cricket, rugby union, rugby league, and netball. Major individual sports include badminton, athletics, tennis, boxing, golf, cycling, motorsport, and horseracing. Cricket is regarded as the national summer sport. Association football is the most popular sport, followed by Cricket, Tennis and Rugby. A number of modern sports were codified in England during the nineteenth century, among them cricket, rugby union, rugby league, football, field hockey, squash, tennis, and badminton. The game of baseball was first described in 18th century England.
Sport in Wales plays a prominent role in Welsh culture. The most popular sport in Wales is rugby union. Like the other countries of the United Kingdom, Wales enjoys independent representation in major world sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup and in the Rugby World Cup, but competes as part of Great Britain in some other competitions, including the Olympics.
Sports play a significant part in the life of many Czechs who are generally loyal supporters of their favourite teams or individuals.
Sport in Saudi Arabia is an important part of Saudi Arabian culture and the country participates in many international sporting competitions. Football is a particularly popular sport and Saudi Arabia has won the Asian Cup on three occasions, while other sports such as cricket and basketball are also widely followed. Restrictions on women's sport in Saudi Arabia have been eased slightly in the 2010s but female participation in sport remains controversial.
Sport is an important element of Kenyan culture. Various indigenous traditional sports have prevailed in Kenyan culture from its earliest history. Some of the traditional games and sports prevalent in Kenya since antiquity have included wrestling, racing exercises, stick fights, hunting, board games, bull fights and dances.
The most popular sports in Jamaica are mostly imported from Britain. The most popular sports are athletics and cricket; other popular sports include association football, basketball and netball.
Sport in Sri Lanka is a significant part of Sri Lankan culture. Although the Sports Ministry named volleyball the national sport, the most popular sport is Cricket. Rugby union is also popular. Other popular sports are water sports, badminton, athletics, football, basketball and tennis. Sri Lanka's schools and colleges regularly organize sports and athletics teams, competing on provincial and national levels.
Sport in Bangladesh is a popular form of entertainment as well as an essential part of Bangladeshi culture. Cricket is the most popular sport in Bangladesh. Ha-du-du is the national sport of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is one of the top 7 cricketing nation of the world and have regularly qualified for World cup since 1999, the Country achieved arguably their greatest heights in Cricket when they defeated three of top-rated teams in 2015 Cricket World Cup to qualify for the quarterfinals. In 2015, they white-washed Pakistan and clinched the series by 3-0 and in another major achievement they won a series against India by 2-1 and in the same year they beat South Africa 2–1 in an ODI series and cemented their spot in Champions Trophy 2017. Traditional sports like Athletics, Swimming, Ha-du-du, Boli Khela, Lathi Khela are mostly played in the rural areas while foreign sports like cricket, football, hockey, volleyball, handball, golf, badminton etc. are more popular among the urban folks. The National Sports Council (NSC) is the governing body to control all the sports federations and councils in the country and is responsible to the ministry of youth and sports. There are a total of 42 different sports federations affiliated with the NSC. Bangladesh Games is the largest domestic multi-sport tournament in the country where athletes and sports teams from all the districts participate.
Sports in Botswana is diverse and reasonably well-developed. Though football, netball and athletics remain the most popular sports, numerous other sporting codes, including cricket, rugby, judo, swimming and tennis are active in the national sporting landscape. The Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC), together with the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) and Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture (MYSC) are responsible for the overall management of sport in the country. In addition, there over 30 National Sport Federations (NSFs) and three school sport federations
There is a wide variety of organized sports in the continent of North America. The continent is the birthplace of several of these organized sports, such as basketball, gridiron football, ice hockey, lacrosse, racquetball, rodeo, ultimate, and volleyball. The modern versions of baseball and softball, skateboarding, snowboarding, stock car racing, and surfing also developed in North America.
The South Africa Baseball UnionSABU is the national governing body of baseball in South Africa. Baseball is played in all provinces, but it is not a major sport especially due to the popularity and relative success of the comparable sport of cricket, in which South Africa is one of the leading countries playing the sport. The Union is a member of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), and the International Baseball Federation (IBAF). SABU is also an affiliate of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), which, alongside Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA) supervises all organised sport in South Africa.
Baseball5 (B5) is an international variation of the safe haven games of baseball and softball, and is governed by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). The game revolves around two teams of five players taking turns playing offense and defense, with each of the offensive team's players hitting a small rubber ball with their bare hands into the field of play and then running counterclockwise around four bases laid out in a square shape to score a run, while the defensive team tries to eliminate offensive players before they complete their trip around the bases to prevent them from scoring. Outs occur either when a hit ball is caught before touching the ground, or when a defender with the ball touches either a base or a runner. The teams switch roles after three outs are made, with an "inning" being completed when both teams have played offense once. The game is played to five innings, with any ties being broken by playing extra innings as necessary, and games generally lasting 15 to 20 minutes. Unlike baseball/softball, there is no pitcher, with the batter starting each play with the ball, which is the only equipment used in the game.
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