sports who are the innglish or the team GB or whoever whatever?

[ecuworrier]

i'm suyhre we've been here before... but they are all popping up out of the pipework... and i am trooly intrigued.... i am really intrigued cos wjhere are the indigenous people where are the indigenous sporting stories... i am intrigued cos is it better to take part and recognise one's shortfall or is it always better to recruit from outside trainers and workers and even investment... can we trooly embrace them as our own ....  yes its this illness and sickness first it was the cricket (and that was that for me) and then it was the athletics and the  tennis then the rugby and even our national sport the footie and now more and more athletes... are we mad or is a bizarre notion of britshness or innglishness confused by our far-reacghi9ng fartravelling past finaly got us well and trooly confused?

who or what is left to support?


GOD BLESS!

Peace and Love,

[EliB]

I have NO idea what you're asking in this post! 

[AndyHB]

Eli, I think that ecu is getting at the way in which various Home Nations and GB teams have 'begun' to include people who aren't 'British/English/Welsh/Scottish/Irish'.  I find it a wee bit disingenuous with ecu's comment that "they are all popping up out of the pipework", since K.S Ranjitsinhji - Indian King - played for the English cricket team back at the end of the 19th century.   Some, more up-to-date examples, are Kevin Pieterson and Jonathan Trott, England cricketers who were both born, and grew up in S. Africa, and the England Rugby international, Riki Flutey, a New Zealand Maori who represented the All Blacks at every level below full international.

However, I'm not sure whether ecu, by talking about 'indigenous' people, is also referring to the way in which national/GB teams have included people who aren't ethnically 'British', such as the long-distance runner Mo Farah or triple jumper Phillips Idowu.

[ecuworrier]

yeah.. my incredulity is in.....   sporting nations.... er does that not imply that the er village er nation has growed its own sportsmen and women thereby marking them as indigenous products that the indigenous natives can then feel very proud of?   i am amazed at the number of achieving sports folks we all get weak at the knees abut that are in no way indigenous... like birth and development and so on.....   Andy HB you are incredibly short on your list of cricket stars and impact players.....    i'm not sure when the last time was when there were only indigenously grown born and bred cricketers playing for ingland....   even yorkshire has given up its proud tradition of fielding only yorkshire born and bred....   i have no objection to young sports stars going abroad to hone their development but then do they have to then bat for the other side....   i just think that leaching talent from countries that have genuine outdoors or sporting cultures for the benefit of the national pursuit of couch potatoing audinece is a bit cringey!  and the sports stars who pick and choose .....  well i am sympathetic to individuals struggling to want to represent their country.. but on the other hand it's a shame that they can't play the game as neutrals .... like having a cross nation team or two of exiles would show colours to the mast and make sport a lot more interesting but then inngland would never win anything at cricket or any other sport for that matter.... oh dear bring  back 66 and all that

 

it just makes sports a miserable  monopoly game where nobody wants the old kent road and everyone is falling over themselves to get to Mayfair ugh! but then that's what has happened to human endeavour i suppose!

GOD BLESS!

Peace and Love,

[AndyHB]

... Andy HB you are incredibly short on your list of cricket stars and impact players.....

It was only meant to be an illustrative list, not an exhaustive one.  A full one would not have been so much exhaustive as exhausting!!    Mind you, I probably ought to have included our most famous 'foreign' tennis player - Greg Rusedski!!

... have no objection to young sports stars going abroad to hone their development but then do they have to then bat for the other side....   i just think that leaching talent from countries that have genuine outdoors or sporting cultures for the benefit of the national pursuit of couch potatoing audinece is a bit cringey!  and the sports stars who pick and choose .....  well i am sympathetic to individuals struggling to want to represent their country.. but on the other hand it's a shame that they can't play the game as neutrals .... like having a cross nation team or two of exiles would show colours to the mast and make sport a lot more interesting but then inngland would never win anything at cricket or any other sport for that matter.... oh dear bring  back 66 and all that

We need to remember that for some, at least, it hasn't been their call.  If I recall correctly, the likes of Andrew Strauss only went abroad because they were taken by a family that were either emigrating or working abroad.  Others would never have got into their own national team; Basil D'Olivera comes to mind - a South African Coloured who would never have been allowed to walk the hallowed turf of stadia such as Ellis Park or Wanderers in Joburg, Kingsmead in Durban, Centurion Park in Centurion, Newlands in Cape Town or Springbok Park in Bloemfontein.

[ecuworrier]

very innglish of the innglish to be so generous about exiles but can't exiles and the like even those who feel frustrated by the lack of opportunity to represent their own country.. selection is a very subjective hit or miss matter.... create their own team and play as a seperate miscellany... i would welcome that it owuld make sport far more entertaingin and varied and give sportspeople themselves a real option not to or not to be allowed to represent their own country....

with the rugby world cup coming up i would be more inclined to support the fijiamns or thesamoans if they weren't in the same pool as wales and south africa... that seems to be a really tough grooup!.... just on the basis of their inability(?) to attract proven quality stars from other countries.... Fiji did fantastically well last time around!
i was especially interested that they worked out their own training methods like tree hugging that to me seemed to be what sport was all about ! creative never say die attitude i welcome more of those sorts of stories!

GOD BLESS!

Peace and Love,