Handball's a great game. Shame it never really took off here. There must be some political reasons for ruling us out of the last world cup. Looking at how we went last world cup, we're a long way off the top 24 though :lol:

Might start following our progress in this tournament.

Edited by mcjules: 25/6/2015 10:51:10 PM

Handball rocks. The crowds go full mental berko and are massively boisterous.

Huge amount of fun.

Road cycling is like Tennis and even football, everyone would like to win an Olympic gold, but it's not the pinnacle of the sport.

As cycling goes, I'm not much of a fan of track cycling as a spectator. I used to sit mindboggled wondering how people could even bother watching road cycling, but it is actually really in depth in terms of tactics. I watch all the races on EuroSport now. Good stuff.

Exactly.

We do.

quote=mcjules]
Handball's a great game. Shame it never really took off here. There must be some political reasons for ruling us out of the last world cup. Looking at how we went last world cup, we're a long way off the top 24 though :lol:

Might start following our progress in this tournament.

Edited by mcjules: 25/6/2015 10:51:10 PM[/quote]

In a decision taken by the International Handball Federation on 8 July 2014 the spot allocated for a nation from Oceania was revoked on the grounds that Oceania has no continental confederation. The national team, qualified for this spot through the 2014 Oceania Handball Championship, was Australia. The spot was instead handed out as a wild card to the nation with the highest ranking at the previous world championships not qualified for the Qatar tournament. This nation was Germany.

Was a big joke and very unfair even in the eyes of many Germans who were pissed enough their team hadn't qualified properly.

In a decision taken by the International Handball Federation on 8 July 2014 the spot allocated for a nation from Oceania was revoked on the grounds that Oceania has no continental confederation. The national team, qualified for this spot through the 2014 Oceania Handball Championship, was Australia. The spot was instead handed out as a wild card to the nation with the highest ranking at the previous world championships not qualified for the Qatar tournament. This nation was Germany.

Was a big joke and very unfair even in the eyes of many Germans who were pissed enough their team hadn't qualified properly. [/quote]
Yeah but because they'd competed in the past and it at least appears on the surface like a "last minute decision". I assumed there was some politicking from the heavy hitters in the IHF to get Germany back in. Of course IHF isn't FIFA so maybe it's different :lol:

FWIW, I've felt for a long time that cricket has always had the potential to be *visibly* more global than what it is...but b/c the grubs @ the ICC (ie. the old Marylebone CC toffs and their Indian Subcontinent counterparts) couldn't care less about legitimately (20/20 is a gimmick that doesn't count for sh1t IMHO) growing the game outside of its strongholds, nothing changes.

It's funny; I'm originally from a football-mad country only a proverbial stone's throw away from the West Indies...but no-one there knows what cricket is. You'd think due to the geographical proximity someone would've heard of it in passing, but quite apparently not.