I have a multiple select as below.

It allows me to select options as below. Assume that 3 sports are selected.

When the items are select as shown above form submit is successful.

But unfortunately if the sports are not selected like below when the form is submitted post is empty.

Select box

<select style="width: 100px; height: 80px;" class="input" id="selected_sport_list" name="selected_sport_list[]" multiple="">
<option value="2">sport 2</option>
<option value="3">sport 3</option>
<option value="5">sport test x</option></select>

How can I make sure that when the form is submitted particular items are selected? Is it possible to use jquery to fix this ? or how?

Thanks