Here's an article from the BBC on how colleges load foreign talent onto their teams in the hopes of dominating the sport. In this case, the sport is tennis: "No other American college sport has more international players than tennis."
However, US squash fans have heard the same discussion about college squash for years -- 13, in fact.
However, there is another angle to this story worth noting. One commenter to the BBC article, "Dedjiridoo," wrote the following:
"I played men's squash, a sport that that has been dominated for the past 12 years by Trinity college. Trinity has recruited the best players in the world--junior champions from England, India, Pakistan, and South Africa. This was intimidating as a player, but also a wonderful challenge. We knew that we were competing against the absolute best and it raised the standard of the league."
That's a good point.
I agree that foreign players can certainly raise the overall level in the national league but I can't help but wonder at what cost at the lower levels.
ReplyDeleteMy club has had hired guns play for our best team and has spent quite a lot of ressources on it. I can't help but wonder what these ressources could have done for the club if they instead had been spent on attracting new players or on developing juniors.