Often claimed to be the fastest game on earth – the handmade rubber balls can fly at over 150 mph (240 kph) – jai alai was imported to the Philippines from Spain’s Basque country.
It’s a furious spectacle, vaguely related to handball, in which players sling the ball from basketed hands against a massive wall, cheered on by fanatical crowds.
Jai alai is a sport involving bouncing a ball off a walled-in space by accelerating it to high speeds with a hand-held wicker cesta. It is a variation of Basque pelota. The term jai alai, coined by Serafin Baroja in 1875, is also often loosely applied to the fronton (the open-walled playing area) where matches take place. The game, whose name means “merry festival” in Basque, is called zesta-punta (“basket tip”) in the Basque Country.
The sport is played worldwide, but especially in Spain and France, and in Latin American countries. Wikipedia