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It is often said that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” And certainly in sports, despite each game bleating about its unique virtues, in many parts of their setup they clamber over each other to mimic areas of perceived strength.
One of the areas of imitation which is the most ridiculous is the drive for many codes and sports to have some kind of tournament titled a World Cup.
This combination of a mindless push for international legitimacy on the part of code administrators, and lack of imagination in terms of the best way this may be achieved, is at times a real detriment to the code in question.
The looming example is the rugby league World Cup.
While I do not dispute for a second that the game should have an international dimension, surely there are better ways for this to be driven and promoted than what is occurring. It is just so easy to write off this event in its current guise – on the number and size and spread of countries participating, on the lack of depth of any form of qualification process, on the way players are selected for the countries, and so on.
I cannot help but think that if league administrators had shied away from the words “World Cup,” they would have bought themselves a whole lot of flexibility without detracting from the substance of their tournament.
One would be less likely to question the credibility of a “Pacific League Challenge,” or similar, and to accept innovative thoughts that would improve the tournament (such as Wally Lewis’ excellent suggestion that Australia should be split into NSW and QLD origin teams) if it were differentiated in name from the much larger World Cup’s of football and union.
I am not knocking the league tournament as a concept, though, as I feel the same way about – just as one example – the track cycling “World Cup,” which is made even stranger by the fact that alongside the competing nations are private professional teams.
Once again the drive to have something – whatever it is – called a “World Cup” has overtaken the more sensible and creative promotion of a competitive transnational series.
In this respect, I tip my hat to the AFL for running its recent International Cup in an innovative and appropriate way for its circumstances.
And the result is a bolstering of the game and a great experience for all countries participating.
At the same time the AFL has not risked the credibility drop of running a ‘wannabe’ event that people can so easily pick holes in.
So I pose the question: what does an international tournament need to be credibly and legitimately called a World Cup?
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