ABSTRACT
To someone such as myself writing from outside the IR discipline, it should be obvious that sport has a considerable impact on international affairs. Sport as a ‘fan-experience’ is essentially about relationships, and those sports that send their taproots deep into communities and nations have always been felt as strong promoters of an acute sense of identity. The dealings between Australia and Britain for example are conducted (in the public mind) almost solely on the fields of various sports. Who knows of what the dialogue between the governments of these two nations consists? Do we care? But when it comes to producing a rugby or cricket team capable of beating the Aussies, millions of Brits really do care. They want to know how the Australians have learnt consistently to produce such great players; how they organize their sport and what we can learn from them.
