Underthinking International representation

So today I heard on the news that Netball NZ is going to take the governing body to court over Catherine Latu. Apparently the issue is young Catherine played for Samoa at the last World Champs of netball, which was obviously a mistake because only two teams ever win the world champs or any netball tournament for that matter, and neither of them are Samoa.

"Who will win the next World Champs? Heads - Australia, Tails NZ"

Netball has gone from the ridiculous to sensible eligibility rules. It used to be you could wake up one morning and decide you wanted to play for a different country.

"Those Australian uniforms look pretty good, hey? Maybe I will play for them next year."

But these days they require that you stand down to the end of the following world champs so this is basically a four year stand down, which is pretty sensible. Although I am pretty sure in most countries it takes at least 7 years to become a citizen, so if anything it is still too short.

"If we had played netball we could have got these three years ago"

Never having been an elite athlete I don't know what I would do, but I can't really see myself having a burning desire to represent any country except the one of my birth. I mean essentially international sport is saying the best players from my country are better than the players from your country, and that no longer stands if players start country hopping.

"Us South Africans are far superior at cricket than you Eng...ah South Africans"

I mean I guess I understand there are situations where birth isn't the main factor, i.e you moved as a small child, so the country or your birth isn't really where you call home. And that is fine represent the country that you call home.
But the issue I have is when people start wanting to represent two countries, I mean in the Latu case she only played for Samoa because that's where her parents are from, she was born in NZ, she grew up in NZ.

Samoa (Two main Islands)

NZ (Two main Islands) - I get confused too sometimes

The only reason she would have played for Samoa was because it was easier to make the team, so tough bikkies, you chose the easy option live with it, its not a pro contract it is representing a country! You don't just go with the best option at the time.

"I am proud to be representing the fine people of .......Ireland, (You guys are going to give me a lot of money right?) my homeland"

 I sometimes think this idea has been lost in professional sport, representing a country is not to further your career, it is to say I am the best player of my sport in my country and I want to take on the best in other countries.
It seems to me a lot of people just shop around countries see who give them the best deal, which team they can make. I think people who are eligible for two countries should declare which one is there preference and always aim for that. So if Latu's dream was to be a Silver fern, she shouldn't have played a world cup for Samoa, because the Silver ferns didn't pick her and Samoa did.
This is very disrespectful to Samoa, she is pretty much saying thanks for picking me when I wasn't quite the best, now that I am, I am going to leave you behind and play for the Silver ferns because they want me now.

"Yeah I am too cool for you now Samoa"

I mean other sports do it, but the effect is most profound in Netball, since it is always the Silver Ferns, or Australia that are taking the cream. So they will always be the best teams, whereas South Africa, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga will always languish because players will only play for them until they are good enough to make the top teams

Underthinking Commonwealth

First of all I must lay my cards on the table, I do not understand why we need the commonwealth games. I have never gotten into it, I don't understand it, and to be honest I would be happy if it was gone.
For starters you don't even have to be a real country to attend the commonwealth games. There are only 54 nations in the commonwealth, yet 71 teams attend the games. How you may ask?

"....53,54....fifty-..nah I can't see anymore."

Well for starters Great Britain decides since they are the leader, then they should probably get more than one entry, so for the purpose of the games they seperate not only into the 4 home nations (Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland) but also declare any bit of land not physically attached to the mainland a country (Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man). I mean if they can do that why don't New Zealand send a South Island, North Island, Chatham Island and Stewart Island delegation?

Norman unveils the mascot for the 2010 Chatham Island team

To be fair to the Motherland though, us colonies have joined the party ie NZ with Tokelau, Cook Islands etc and Australia with Norfolk Island. Despite the fact made up countries can compete in these games...

The people of Starwaria are always proud when their team enters the stadium

....we still don't get a great cross section of the world competing at the games

There are more places not highlighted than highlighted.

But that's not the end of it, so we are starting with roughly 20% of the worlds countries. So the talent pool is already severely limited, then the top competitors from nations that are eligible to compete don't because they don't view it as prestigious (Usain Bolt, Caster Semenya, even our own Greg Henderson).
What exactly do you claim to be if you win a commonwealth medal?
I mean for example in weightlifting as far as I can tell the highest ranked commonwealth country is Canada at 16th equal, so at best you are 16th best in the world with a gold in commonwealth. (Presuming of course each country only has one good guy which is unlikely so you maybe barely cracking the top 30)

From a limited number of countries, and out of the people that actually decided to turn up I am the best at my sport

Then some of the other sports they have at the commonwealth games? They have greco-roman wrestling despite the fact neither the Greeks nor the Romans attend the games, they have Judo despite the fact the Japanese aren't there, they have table tennis yet no Chinese. When is the last time you saw a non-Chinese competitive table tennis player? This is second only to being a white sprinter in poor sporting career decisions.

Arthur Spriggs the last competive non-Chinese Tennis player sadly passed in 2003

Out of the other sports that are involved, I think the only one where the commonwealth games is the pinnacle is Lawn Bowls.
I mean the rugby 7's, quite a commonwealth dominated sport is without places like Italy, France, Ireland (real Ireland), Argentina, USA (Shown some promise of late), so hardly the pinnacle of the sport.
The netball, a sport only played in the commonwealth as far as I know, is really only a competition between Australia and NZ, an event that occurs every other Tuesday, just with different made up titles on the line, so hardly pinnacle. Netball in that sense is kind of like WWE where the competitors just decide to which titles to put on the line, imagine if that was the case.....

Okay so its agreed we are competing for the Fisher-Paykell, World Champ, Asia-Pacific Champ, but not the South Pacific or Commonwealth titles?

I mean I don't want to detract from the effort all the athletes and competitors put in, but at the end of the day if you are not good enough to be the best in the world, should you actually be a professional athlete? Perhaps you have underthought your profession?