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Now , since the original owner of the the thread has given up , it might not be a bad idea to hijack it , I will wait for the protesters ...
I am taking a guess here Carl , probably because the ITTF along with us have deemed that the greatest acceptance of Table tennis as a global sport is through its inclusion in Olympics , and since nationality is inexorably tied to the Olympics the rest follows.
There could be another interesting theory , again pure guess work , look at the level of corruption in the world sports bodies , tennis is a comparatively corruption free sports , because its elite , there is a lot of money and from a social perspective it does not have penetration into third world countries except the creme de la creme in those countries ... so the politics there has gotten above beyond the nationalities but instead of becoming global sports they have become global "corporate" sports ...
It helps the governing authorities in the more corrupt sports to follow the age old divide and rule policy and keep shining the spotlight on nationality , to help them win the elections by promising peanuts to those less unfortunate countries and promising power and sway in policy decisions to the more fortunate ones
However, and this is the saddest part, time and again , in this day and age, we come across perfectly educated fans / amateurs / coaches in these sports who have international exposure but still cannot rise above their parochial vision of nationality, realize that they are a citizen of the world , and acknowledge the sport as a global sport
I am taking a guess here Carl , probably because the ITTF along with us have deemed that the greatest acceptance of Table tennis as a global sport is through its inclusion in Olympics , and since nationality is inexorably tied to the Olympics the rest follows.
There could be another interesting theory , again pure guess work , look at the level of corruption in the world sports bodies , tennis is a comparatively corruption free sports , because its elite , there is a lot of money and from a social perspective it does not have penetration into third world countries except the creme de la creme in those countries ... so the politics there has gotten above beyond the nationalities but instead of becoming global sports they have become global "corporate" sports ...
It helps the governing authorities in the more corrupt sports to follow the age old divide and rule policy and keep shining the spotlight on nationality , to help them win the elections by promising peanuts to those less unfortunate countries and promising power and sway in policy decisions to the more fortunate ones
However, and this is the saddest part, time and again , in this day and age, we come across perfectly educated fans / amateurs / coaches in these sports who have international exposure but still cannot rise above their parochial vision of nationality, realize that they are a citizen of the world , and acknowledge the sport as a global sport
I am all for thinking outside the box to get the rest of the world more competitive with the top CNT players. So thanks Eli for getting people to look at these things a little differently.
One of the things I have never entirely understood about table tennis as a sport is why nationality plays so big a part in how events are played.
For instance, in tennis, at Wimbledon, I don't think they list the player's name with their country flag. And in a match with. Nadal, they don't talk incessantly about Spain. Or about Serbia when Djokavic is playing.
I wonder why table tennis is like that.
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