[FuzzyRussianHat]

After the formation of South Asia Baseball with the 1980 season, the most populated nations without a team in a Global Baseball Alliance league were Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan. Certainly, the game had been introduced in each country and had plenty of supporters. No doubt, these countries had cities and markets that could support major league level teams. On their own though, they weren't big enough to sustain a league comparable to the other existing ones in the GBA.

Logistics, geography, and politics meant these three countries didn't fit in other existing leagues. Turkey had been considered to have teams within the European Baseball Federation, but mixed relations with some countries and being further east than most teams in the EBF kept them out. Pakistan's warring with India made joining up with South Asia Baseball a non-starter. All three had also sided against the Soviet Bloc generally, making teams within Eurasian Professional Baseball unfeasible.

Post World War II, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey generally had good relations with each other and more commonality politically and culturally than with many of their neighbors. Each was in the Central Treaty Organization and then later the Economic Cooperation Organization, promoting shared economic and security concerns. Thus, when leaders started seriously contemplating a major professional baseball organization, some alliance of teams between the three appeared to be the best way forward. This eventually culminated in the creation of the Asian Baseball Federation, which saw its debut season in 1985.

In its original form, the ABF had the eight-team Pakistan League and the ten-team West Asia Association; split between a five-team Turkish League and five-team Persian League. This setup lasted 15 years, then saw a major realignment and teams added due to the EPB exodus. The eight Pakistan League teams were based in Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Gujranwala, Karachi, Multan, and Rawalpindi. The Iranian teams were Isfahan, Mashhad, Shiraz, Tabriz, and Tehran. The Turkish teams were Adana, Ankara, Bursa, Istanbul, and Izmir. There would be no interleague play.

The top two teams in the Pakistan League face off in a best-of-seven league championship, while the top teams in the WAA divisions do the same. The two winners advance to the best-of-seven ABF Championship. The West Asia Association uses the designated hitter while the Pakistan League does not. The PL generally would have a low offense environment relative to historical trends. The WAA had noticeably higher scoring than their counterpart while still being viewed as below average still. The ABF originally had seven years minimum service time required for free agency and used a partially regional draft to keep players local, although there weren't any foreign player limits to rosters.