Thought of the Day: When it comes to sporting development, size doesn't matter

A report in The Age written by the appropriately named Laura House today put forward the argument that Australia will lose sporting superiority as a result of greater urbanisation & the associated lack of recreational space.

While there is some base-level logic to this argument, it doesn't take into account the amount of highly successful sportspeople that come from urbanised areas that are short on recreational space such as backyards.

Rio de Janeiro, seen here heavily urbanised.  Not seen are sportspeople or ridiculous bikinis.

Indeed, many professional sports people in the USA come directly from heavily urbanised areas, though they have succeeded in the sports available to them (e.g. Basketball, Tennis).  South East Asia has produced a raft (or the appropriate collective noun) of excellent table-tennis players, where space is also limited.

Even here in Australia, the cricketing family of the Harveys famously learned to play in the alleyways of Fitzroy.

Good for variable bounce, and syringes.

Using this as a comparison, the days of games of backyard cricket or kick-to-kick may be on the wane in Australia, but this by no means will lead to a reduction in sporting development.  More influential will be participation rates, with the emphasis being on parents to let their children out of the house to participate & "play".