X Ball Nations Cup Identity Crisis?

[mikeyR]

Firstly, the following is an observation and not in any way derogatory to the players involved.

Why are the English X-Ball team wearing the Union Jack?

Having just read the report on round 3 of this event in PGI
172 with a very lovely picture of the team some observations spring to mind.

As most people know the Union Jack represents Great Britain or the United Kingdom and the flag has input from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales and yet the team is playing as England! The team should be wearing a shirt with the flag of St. George as the design not the Union Jack. By playing as England they should dress 'English' or they should be playing as Great Britain/ U.K. and be representative of the whole nation.

I will be supporting England at Campaign whatever colours they wear but I do think they have alienated certain sections of support by calling themselves England as backed up by a direct quote from the author of the article, Ant Jones:

"Being Welsh, I don't really have any affiliations with either squad......." (England v Sweden)

We in the U.K. have missed a golden marketing oppotunity for the sport as a whole in this country.

Instead of their just being an England team to follow we should have Welsh, Scottish and Irish X-Ball teams to cheer on. The media will surely have an interest in a home nations competition. From reading these boards their was such a huge rivalary/friendly banter over the North v South game even from those not playing, imagine the interest from players in this new competition.

Is it yet again a problem of money for teams from these countries to be formed or just apathy? I would presume the former.

So can someone tell me:

i) Why the Union Jack?
ii) Where are the other home nations?

 

[Mak D - Nexus Eclipse]

I kno iv been wonderin about this for a while, they are called team Great Britain, but sumtimes they are reffered to as team England!
Wots goin on, is this team England or team Great Britain cause last time I checked there was more than just England in the UK.

This really annoys me actually its always the same thing doesn t matter wot sport, if David Coulthard takes a win, its a win for ''Great Britain' not Scotland, but if Jenson takes a win its for England!!!!!

So wot s it gonna be team England or team Great Britain?

mak D

 

[Mak D - Nexus Eclipse]

And another thing, why are there not any player from anywhere else in that team, seems to me they are all from England, wots up with that???? Why isn t their a Scot on the team? I kno their aint alot of players up here, but there are a few that could make ur X-ball team.

Mak D

 

[Fi$h]

Potentially, at some point i guess there could be england/scotland/ireland cos we all have teams, but on the other side of the coin, do the powers that be really wanna see a scottish or irish team? Do you think they want a great deal more teams competing in the nations cup?

Personally i'm conflicted as to whether or not it should be "Great Britain" with a pool of players from all over, or indiviual nations, i.e: Scotland, Ireland, England.

How do u constitute a "Nations Team" anyway? If there was a scotland team u could technically stick Davey Williams from Miami Effect in it cos he's scottish.....or is that not the way it works....

Thoughts?

Fi$h

 

[gaff]

whatever the nation, the team is supposed to be the best players playing for their nation. so basically the best pro's in the UK should be representing Great Britain.

if you had Wales, Ireland and Scotland then you would have to play your best players. to be honest the way we keep getting mullered by the other nations i think we could do with a larger population of players to choose from not smaller!!

 

[Mark Toye-Nexus]

Reality bites right now

Firstly - I think that it should have been a UK team BUT how many players from the whole of the UK commit to the complete series??

Or do you all think that maybe players could just swan in and out of the squad as and when they could afford to attensd a Millennium event?

The way it was set up was that the Captain of the highest ranked team would select a squad. This year it was the Tigers. They decided to go with two teams made up of Shock and Tigers players, all of whom would be attending EVERY Millennium event.

Is it making a bit more sense guys?

Or shall we put in a Welsh squad that could only turn out a few players in each event, not be able to fulfill their fixtures and spoil the point of trying to have a cuccessful inaugural years XBalling?

As for the usual rethoric about the English saying Coulthard is British, blah bleedin blah - my god, I am sick of that ****e. I am proud to be English, I will support the other home nations too. England is first but WE are all British!!

Love y'all

Mark

 

[Mak D - Nexus Eclipse]

Originally posted by Mark Toye-Nexus
my god, I am sick of that ****e.

Tell me about it, how do u think WE feel!!!!!!!

I hear wot ur sayin dude, but a aint sayin there should be a team full of welsh players etc just that the NATIONAL team should be full of players from the NATION

A few players from Scotland, Wales etc would kill you, but hey time will tell.

Mak D

 

[Tom Tom]

So the Nexus Squad was the Xball team but now it is made up of Shock and Tigers players?

Will that mean people can try out for Xball as they did when Robbo did it next time. (Not that I am good enough but trying to think of all the other nations)

Like has been said I have Welsh and English blood and would support both but would get behind any team playing in the GB flag (Ireland vs Sweden go with the Irish)

Good luck to all the XBall players and look forward to seeing it happen at Campaign

 

[Sean]

Tom,

There was afaik a real difference in the Nexus selection and the current x-ball format.

Pete was given the chance to put together a squad from the uk to represent us in a new format on the world scene! This was an exhibition tournament if you want, one to let people know of the new format and have ambassadors from each country who knew the ins and outs. Pete went the diplomatic way of opening his trials to anyone and everyone, and he had everyone try! Scotland Wales (not sure about Ireland)

He could have just chosen a team and been done with it.

What then followed was the set up of the x-ball league in the states. Because of the 8 teams many who wanted into the format were excluded. The Nations cup x-ball was born out of the original 7 man nations cup and people over here wanting to keep hold of the x-ball format.

The discussions became part of the millennium board and they chose to let the captain of the highest ranking team in each country select his team!

It took pete a long time to organise what he did for the inaugural x-ball event. Teams like tigers and shock unfortuately dont have the time to hold open trials. So unless the big guy at the time notices you and invites you to play it wont happen.

The uk squad has gone a sensible way, they have the 2 squads who play together all the time, know each other as a team. And they have formed the 2 x-ball squads based on that! To start throwing together random players would be a set back without the time to get together and train!:

At the end of the day speak to the Tigers!

 

[mikeyR]

Originally posted by Mark Toye-Nexus
Reality bites right now

Firstly - I think that it should have been a UK team BUT how many players from the whole of the UK commit to the complete series??

Or do you all think that maybe players could just swan in and out of the squad as and when they could afford to attensd a Millennium event?................

Is it making a bit more sense guys?

Or shall we put in a Welsh squad that could only turn out a few players in each event, not be able to fulfill their fixtures and spoil the point of trying to have a cuccessful inaugural years XBalling?.........

Mark

OK Everybody calm down!!

To answer Mark's point above, if a Welsh, Irish or Scottish team was formed, I'm sure they would commit to all dates required of them. Surely they would know this from the start so dont be down on these other nations because you think they wouldnt fulfill their fixtures!!

On the above point, if your not English but want to be involved in X-Ball then maybe you should start your own teams and prove Mark wrong that you would be commited.

As I said at the start of the original post, I dont have a problem with the team at all, either in personnel or selection, but others obviously others do, so kindly go and vent your spleen in your own thread and dont hijack mine!!

My actual point of the thread was to find out why Team England are playing in the Union Jack. Maybe you have the answer to this Mark as you seem the most clued up.

My second point was to encourage the non-English players to take part. So like I say above,stop moaning about your lack of inclusion and start your own teams!!