In Asia, sports have always been viewed as an important tool in social integration (Megat Daud, 2000). Additionally, sport has also becomes a means to develop national identities. This is so because people generally equate their national team with their country in international sports competition, and outstanding performances by a national team lead to an increase in the nation’s international status (Hak Lae, 2001). Asia provide an interesting backdrop for the inquiry into the sport management movement as it is the largest continent in the world, with the most diverse in experiences ethnically, culturally, religiously, sociologically, economically and politically (Mangan, 2003). To simplify about the experience of sport in Asia from one single perspective would be futile and counterproductive, and should the need arise, be done with extreme caution (Mangan, 2003).

In a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious Asian society such as in Malaysia, the interest in sports transcend over the differences and the focus for sport participation is more on the similarities of objectives. This is the gist of the National Sports Policy promulgated in 1986 by the Ministry of Youth and Sports that aimed at advocating for more involvement of the masses in local sport. The Policy stipulated that the public should be able to freely participate in sports at various levels, to gain the physical and emotional contentment from such participation and ultimately, in the spirit of pure sportsmanship, to co-exists with other players and worked together towards an end that would benefit the individual primarily and the nation as a whole.