Jai alai Jai alai Jai alai (; Basque: ) is a sport involving a ball bounced off a walled space by accelerating it to high speeds with a hand-held device (cesta). It is a variation of Basque pelota. The term, coined by Serafin Baroja in 1875, is also often loosely applied to the fronton (the open-walled playing area) where the sport is played. The game is called "zesta-punta" (basket tip) in Basque. The Basque Government promotes "jai alai" as "the fastest sport in the world" because of the speed of the ball. The sport once held the world record for ball speed
Cyrus Alai 2006 and 2009. He donated his huge collection of Persian maps to the University of London. Cyrus Alai Cyrus Alai (Persian: سیروس علایی) is a Persian-British engineer, map collector and the author of the book "General Maps of Persia". Alai was born in Tehran and studied at Technical University of Berlin. Before the 1979 revolution he was a lecturer at Tehran University. Shortly after the revolution he moved to London. Alai has contributed to various publications such as the Encyclopedia Iranica for the entries related to cartography of Persia. He is the author of two books "General Maps of Persia"