http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/kids-given-everything-for-a-legup-on-the-field-20100409-ryoo.html
As an author of five books on field hockey, field hockey is another world game and there are numerous other world games. There are similar 'team' sporting codes where the nations that play are matched by soccer - softball, basketball and netball to name popular sports.
http://warriordoc.com/netball.htm
Netball is a great game and is now apparently the number two participant sport in Australia (after golf). Its the number one women's sport in the world and now even the guys are getting into the act. Netball is administered globally by the International Federation of Netball Association (IFNA), and is reportedly played by over 20 million people in more than 70 countries.
Local-level participation is widespread in Commonwealth nations, particularly in schools, although international competition and domestic leagues only receive substantial recognition in a few countries. The highest level of international netball includes the Netball World Championships, the netball event at the Commonwealth Games, and the World Netball Series.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netball
Certainly, Gridiron (US Football) is not a world game, although it is ostentatiously referred to by Americans as a world game and likewise their Baseball as the World Series. Both are a bit of a nonsense being called 'world' …..
Is it perhaps these promised riches and fame of 'world-level' competitions that influence the talent drain from Australia to where the money is in sport?. For example, the best basketballers go to the US, the best soccer players go to Europe, and - wait for it - many of the best field hockey players go to the Netherlands and Spain where professional field hockey is a big deal.
In an attempt to counteract this, the Government has seen fit to give more money to Australian elite sport, particularly Olympic sports, but does this means that the money given to talented young Australians to build their skills to such a level that they then take those talents overseas?
Of course, as soon as generalisations are made, everyone can think of a few exceptions. Harry Kewell and many other soccer players still plays for Australia in the soccer World Cup, many of the IPL cricketers also play for one of the Australian teams, Andrew Gaze has returned to coach and publicise basketball after a stellar career at the very top, Rob de Castella had a career within sport, Margaret Court has been a wonderful mentor to young tennis players – and you will be able to think of many more.
There is a related issue associated with the brain drain of the top young scientists and researchers; although no-one can claim that money has been given to youngsters talented in this area to build their skills, as it has in sport!
It is more that they see opportunities to pit their brains against world experts and in some areas their is more funding overseas (limited though it be compared with sports).
At least in the sciences many of these high achievers come back with greater experiences, sometimes attracted by Government fellowships – and some of them bring researchers from overseas back with them.
Now that could be one model for attracting experienced sports people back here, maybe as coaches.
Are there other model solutions that may be employed? We all want to bolster young Australians' chances of playing a sport that the world gives meaning to, and gain experience at the highest world level. We would all like our athletes and our scientists to be paid accordingly: but as always, resources are limited and priorities have to be made by Governments.
When it is up to 'individuals', such as tennis, golf, Winter Olympic Sports, track & field, the media goes wild when one of ours does 'good' on the international stage, and no mention is made of where they reside most of the year.
However, this is contrasted with some of the team sports. For years it was difficult to get the best soccer players to play for Australia. It is only in recent times has this become a welcome endeavour as the Socceroos came closer and closer to reaching the World Cup.
Therefore, it seems, that in team sports, Australian representation becomes important for the professional athlete when the Australian Team is within cooee of the best in the world.
We seem to need to reach these levels before anyone takes any notice of a particular sport. It won't happen if all our talent goes overseas – however, some may have the opposite view and say it will only happen after our top athletes have trained overseas with 'the very best' and 'bent it like Beckham', and then come back to train our own youngsters.
When this is supplemented (as it has been, for example in soccer, diving, gymnastics, etc) by bringing in coaches from overseas in a type of 'brain gain' , then our experienced players may choose to come back to stay – buzzing with new ideas for training and playing.
Maybe, like the scientists returning to set up their own laboratories with the help of Federation Fellowships, they will even bring other talented players here with them.
In a similar vein, numerous Australian Christian Ministers have undertaken study tours to look at the principles of US Christian Church life that grow congregations. In these cases however, they return buzzing with ideas and the challenge is then to bring their people with them.
Well, perhaps it is not so different to sport after all! Or science. Let many and varied 'world games' begin!!