New Zealand is a top sporting nation for its size"
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@Donsteppa Yeah I think numbers supporting need to be looked at carefully when one really populous nation is involved.
Table Tennis has over a billion followers - mostly in East Asia. It's a niche sport too.
Pencak Silat is the national sport of Indonesia, followed by hundreds of millions globally and has biannual world championships with around 70 member nations (including NZ) I'd never heard of it until 5 minutes ago.
To me cricket is as niche as rugby. It has more fans thanks to the sub-continent but rugby has greater depth of participating nations.
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So outside of soccer which people generally accept as a global sport, are there any others not considered "niche"? You could make an argument for all of them being niche if you want I'd say.
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@dogmeat I think the risk is that everything but football can become - and be dismissed as - a niche sport.
I'm probably more knee deep in cricket social media than most, but unless we're defining it by full ICC membership, I've not formed a view that cricket has fewer participating nations than rugby. The Indian diaspora playing a part in that (among other factors).
@No-Quarter Snap!
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@No-Quarter Athletics is an obvious one. But I would say that Tennis and Golf are more global games than Rugby or Cricket.
@Donsteppa Participating nations is another red herring IMO See NZ / Pencak Silat. Cricket has 12 Test playing nations and 8 associates with ODI status and 2 more with T20 status. Then scores of countries with a Board affiliated to the ICC.
By the most generous of definitions there are 22 'competitive' nations at a global level. Numbers 21 and 22 being PNG and Thailand.
The 21st and 22nd ranked test rugby nations are Canada and Chile. My point wasn't about how many nations participate in each sport - it's the global depth of the sport.
NZ is ranked 22 in basketball. I'd say there's another sport with more depth and global reach than cricket. I'd give NZ more chance of being competitive against the USA at basketball than Thailand against South Africa in rugby
Personally my favourite sport is cricket (test) by a country mile
Anyway not to detract from the weekends achievements. All awesome in their own right.
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2024 could well go down in history as one of our best sporting years, there are still a number of other sports to come including about two more 7s tournaments, the Pacific Nations League Men and Women, Abs tour of Japan and Europe as well as the ongoing test series in cricket and netball, in addition there are our Aleague soccer teams and the Breakers. There are probably a number of other sports I haven't mentioned, we have also featured well at cycling which is hosting a World Championship.
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i would say Basketball is a truly global game. Professional leagues all over the world. The NBA has a massive following everywhere of course, but while that is the centre of the basketball universe, it's huge in Europe, big in Asia.
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@Windows97 said in New Zealand is a top sporting nation for its size":
Well, we can hold this title until someone from Naru, Liechtenstein or the Vatican City wins something, then all our stats are meaningless
Jamaica has us beat all ends up
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@nzzp said in New Zealand is a top sporting nation for its size":
@Windows97 said in New Zealand is a top sporting nation for its size":
Well, we can hold this title until someone from Naru, Liechtenstein or the Vatican City wins something, then all our stats are meaningless
Jamaica has us beat all ends up
Dammit!! I knew there was some statistical anomaly that would trip us up!!
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Don't even have to look for a country with a smaller population.
Ladies and Gentlemen I give you - Finland Slightly larger popn than NZ - 480 Olympic medals including 146 Gold. Obviously dominated by the nordic / alpine sports but also historically strong in athletics (48 Olympic Golds), motor sport, wrestling and a whole bunch of sports you will have never heard of.
Though apparently the West Islanders are the worlds sportiest nation
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@Windows97 No Jamaica which has upwards of 2 million people is mainly known for incredible sprinters like Bolt, in addition they like the other three often compete as the West Indies. We were ahead of Jamaica is the last Olympics even in per capita terms.
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@reprobate The Finns performance at Antwerp does indeed go down as the all time greatest performances. It was at a scaled down Olympics due to the Spanish Flu and Finland had just acquired independance, they probably had a population of just over 2 million. . Finland is a true outlier and also did some freaky shit against the Russians in World War 2.
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@mariner4life said in New Zealand is a top sporting nation for its size":
i would say Basketball is a truly global game. Professional leagues all over the world. The NBA has a massive following everywhere of course, but while that is the centre of the basketball universe, it's huge in Europe, big in Asia.
And really growing in Africa with the African League and the NBA investing there. Probably the fastest growing sports and exploding in western and Northern Africa.
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@mariner4life said in New Zealand is a top sporting nation for its size":
i would say Basketball is a truly global game. Professional leagues all over the world. The NBA has a massive following everywhere of course, but while that is the centre of the basketball universe, it's huge in Europe, big in Asia.
The main global sports are football and basketball. Others, such as baseball have a huge following in the Americas and Asia. Rugby must be a fair way back
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@canefan said in New Zealand is a top sporting nation for its size":
@mariner4life said in New Zealand is a top sporting nation for its size":
i would say Basketball is a truly global game. Professional leagues all over the world. The NBA has a massive following everywhere of course, but while that is the centre of the basketball universe, it's huge in Europe, big in Asia.
The main global sports are football and basketball. Others, such as baseball have a huge following in the Americas and Asia. Rugby must be a fair way back
by fan numbers, cricket is up there (thanks India). Far from a 'niche' sport
The Most Popular Sports In The World
The most popular sports in the world include basketball, cricket, hockey, and tennis, which all have millions of devoted fans.
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that article is fucking retarded, where in gods name did you find that?
Also Cricket is very much a niche sport. Test cricket even more so.
And i reckon those fan numbers are completely made up, based on nothing more than the populations of countries who might know what the sport is, and a healthy dose of national stereotyping.
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@SBW1 said in New Zealand is a top sporting nation for its size":
Really hoping we can finish the year strong. If we do we could indeed be in some respect compartive to the Flying Finns, whose achievements would be gold star for a smaller nation.
Is there some sort of league table inside your head where the next few months tips the balance over the century old weighted Finns exploits?
1920 Summer Olympics - Wikipedia
