A new world order F
or the first time in a long time, potentially ever but my history is a touch hazy,
the World Bowls Tour season kicked off this year with no player from outwith Great Britain inside the top 16 of the rankings. This season’s line-up includes four Welsh representatives, five for the Scots and seven players wearing the colours of England.
Even accounting for the country each was born in - as, remember, at the top level of international bowls, you generally represent the country you are resident in - there are still no overseas players, with six Scottish-born players, six from England, one from Northern Ireland and three from Wales. This, I’m afraid to say, gives me some cause for concern, and I’ll explain why.
In previous years, we have had players representing Hong Kong - Noel Kennedy and Mark McMahon - as well as those from Australia, such as former Commonwealth Games men’s singles gold-medalist Kelvin Kerkow, holding down places in the top 16 and, thereby, gaining entry to each of the WBT’s ranking events for the corresponding season. However, the relative success of these players belies the fact that multiple nationalities are represented in each WBT competition. Indeed, in the recent Co-operative Funeralcare Scottish International Open, the curtain-raising event for the 2011-2012 World Bowls Tour season, there were nine different nationalities represented: England, Scotland and Wales, of course, as well as Australia (who had two players in the field), Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, South Africa and the United States of America.
Each of these country’s players earned their places in the field through international PBA qualifiers and went straight into the first round of the event. By the second round, only one of the Australians was left, and he was put out before the quarters got underway. Now, some people will say this is proof that foreign qualifiers aren’t good enough to play at the top level. Others will suggest it just goes to show how dominant British-born players are when it comes to indoor bowls.
Me? I tend to think that both of these perspectives are skewed. On the one hand, of course British-born players should be better.
They have more experience on the portable rink - a surface that, by common consent, takes a bit of adapting to - and, what’s more, they don’t have the added hassle of needing to travel hundreds of miles, at great personal expense and with all the jet-lag that accompanies long journeys, to play in these events. Right from the get-go, British players hold an upper hand the way that things are.
As for the ‘foreign players
aren’t good enough’ argument, that’s utter rubbish. Kerkow, for example, spent seven years, from 2004 until 2011, within the top 16 of the WBT rankings and won two ranking events.
Four of the present crop of top 16 players haven’t managed to win once, so far. Meanwhile, compare the WBT rankings list to the World Bowls men’s singles list and you will see there are seven players from the southern hemisphere inside their top ten. So, clearly, overseas players are good enough to compete, contend and win at the highest level of bowls.
Why the lack of foreign talent in the WBT’s top 16 is worrying BY MICHAEL McEWAN
So, why the disparity? Well, in the case of the WBT, I think that boils down to the fact that all three of the present ranking events take place in the UK. It is simply too easy for British bowlers and too hard for overseas players to make an impression on the rankings. Overseas players have to contend with qualifying events and, if successful, take time off work - up to three weeks in the case of the World Indoor Singles Championship - and fly half the way round the world
after what have been a difficult few years for everyone, economically-speaking. But, in the years to come, new ground must be broken and new frontiers explored in order to grow the game internationally. The knock-on effects will be more nationalities playing the game and greater global exposure - which will surely impress the International Olympic Committee, amongst others.
As we all know by now, the IOC is more likely to grant
Kelvin Kerkow is now out of the WBT top 16
at great expense to take part. It is both cost and time prohibitive.
The World Bowls Tour has got to look at the possibility of staging events outwith the UK
The solution, in my opinion, is for the World Bowls Tour to look into the possibility of staging events outwith the UK. The Atlantic Championships and Premier League Bowls were successfully held this year in Cyprus - why not have an event there and level out the playing field, so to speak?
Of course, the WBT has an obligation to look after its three existing events first and foremost and make sure that they stay on a sure footing
Olympic status to ‘new’ events like bowls if there is evidence that the sport is being played in enough countries. Surely it stands to reason that the more countries the sport is played in, the more chance it has of introducing new people to take it up. The World Bowls Tour remains the most sport’s most potential-filled platform. One look at any of the tournaments it hosts is proof prositive for that. However, it is crucial for the game’s future that this potential is explored to the max.
NationwideBowler 17
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