Penang adds pickleball courts in major SXI sports upgrade
Penang will add dedicated pickleball courts to the SXI upgrade as the state backs a sport that has grown to more than 50 venues and 300 courts.
Dedicated pickleball courts are being folded into the major sports upgrade at St Xavier’s Institution (SXI) Penang, a small but important sign that the sport has moved from borrowed space to permanent planning. In a state where pickleball already has more than 50 established venues and over 300 courts, the SXI buildout is less about adding another facility than about deciding where the sport belongs in Penang’s future.
That kind of investment would have sounded far-fetched just a few years ago. Penang Pickleball Association chairman Erik Phuah said the sport was introduced to Penang around 2021, and one of the earliest reported games took place at the Penang Youth Park pavilion open ground in June 2022 with fewer than 10 players. The Penang Pickleball Association itself was only officially formed in 2023. In other words, a sport that began with a handful of players is now getting courts inside a major sports upgrade.
The state is no longer treating that growth as a novelty. State youth and sports committee chairman Daniel Gooi said Penang is working closely with the Penang Pickleball Association and local communities to develop the sport, with organic growth already visible at City Park in Seri Delima, Jawi on the mainland and the Nibong Tebal Arena. He said pickleball is still classified as a non-Sukma sport, but Penang hopes to see it included in Sukma in future. That is the clearest signal yet that officials are thinking about pickleball as a pathway sport, not just a recreational trend.
Penang’s case is built on scale as much as enthusiasm. The state hosted the World Pickleball Championship 2026 from April 16 to 19 at Pickle By The Sea on Gurney Drive, with the event expected to draw 700 to 800 players from around the world. The WPC Malaysia Series 2026 also began in Penang before moving on to Kuala Lumpur and Johor Baru, giving the state a central role in the sport’s regional calendar. Asia Pickleball Summit 2.0 drew about 1,500 participants in June 2026, another marker of how quickly the game has widened across the region.
The expansion has not been free of turbulence. The Malaysia Pickleball Association said the sport’s rise in Malaysia began in 2019, but the Sports Commissioner’s Office suspended the national body in late February 2026 over governance concerns. Penang’s response has been practical: keep building courts, keep organizing locally and keep turning demand into permanent infrastructure. With SXI now set to add dedicated pickleball space, the state is making a blunt point that the sport has earned a seat in public sports planning.
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