Tym Glaser

I'D REALLY like to see some satellite pictures of our likkle blue orb right now just to make sure it's not shrinking because, to me, it sure seems to be getting smaller.

And that's particularly so in my particular area of interest - sport, where everything seems so 'mix up and blenda' nowadays.

The European football leagues started it all in the '70s when they began importing foreign players to boost their squads and today it's almost completely out of hand - particularly in the English Premiership where the top four sides (Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool) are hard pressed to come up with 11 Englishmen between them!

Now, I'm not saying 'globalisation' is bad for any sport, it's just a lot different from when I was growing up and could follow my homegrown Port Adelaide Aussie Rules players and South Australian cricketers from year to year with nary a change. I was supporting the players as much as the black-and-white jersey or red cap.

Talent rush

Like the European football clubs, but on a far more insular scale, the biggest Aussie Rules league, the VFL, began sucking talent from South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania in the late '70s, which was both good and bad.

It lessened the talent in the other leagues, but it was good to have some of your players to follow in the leading competition.

Sadly, the talent rush to Victoria also spelt the end of state-of-origin football, the indigenous game's version of an 'international'.

Aussie Rules is just a small example of the concentration of talent in sport.

Look at American Major League Baseball where the sides' rosters are dominated by Hispanic players from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Argentina, et al, and Asian lands Japan and South Korea.

Almost every National Basketball Association team has a foreigner on board and two of the league's past three MVPs (Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitski) are from Canada and Germany.

Overseas talent

The Women's NBA, built around US college players, has a liberal sprinkling of overseas talent - mainly from Europe and Australia.

Netball giants Australia and New Zealand have formed the ANZ Championship competition which features five teams from each country and a smattering of internationals including our own goal shooter Romelda Aiken, who plays for the Queensland Firebirds.

And look at conservative, old cricket now and the new Indian Premier League which held an auction of the world's best players for the on-going competition. This concept of hybrid teams might just revolutionise the sport.

Former Australian coach John Buchanan raised more than a few hackles not so long ago when he suggested fringe Australian players could play for other countries to boost those sides.

Unfair selection

Queenslander cum Jamaican Brendan Nash must have come awfully close to making the West Indies training squad for the coming series against his former home, so is Buchanan's view that far-fetched?

No country shows the duplicity of the situation more than England which always seems to want to curb the number of overseas players in County cricket because local players aren't getting a "fair go". Then the England selectors happily go off and select players from South Africa, Australia and Zimbabwe to represent the country.

Would you support a West Indies team that included, say, an Australian, a New Zealander and an Englishman?

What's more important to you, the players or the colour of the cap?

Later ...

tym.glaser@gleanerjm.com