Should we promote closer sporting links between the CANZUK nations?

[u/Ticklishchap]

How about a specifically CANZUK sports tournament?

This is only the germ of an idea, but there is a lot of interest in sport in all the CANZUK countries and it is part of our educational systems (I still follow Rugby and Cricket, for example, because I played them at school). Surely we can build on our existing sporting links to promote the idea of co-operation in other areas?

Also, it might be enjoyable for us to promote each other’s national sports - more Rugby and Cricket in Canada and more Field Hockey and Aus. Rules Football in the UK, for instance?

Any thoughts on this general theme welcome.

[u/Due_Ad_3200]

Perhaps related

Cricket and the commonwealth

https://thecommonwealth.org/news/cricket-brings-commonwealth-together-leaders-and-future-stars-unite-chogm-2026

I There are already Commonwealth Games, so I don't know if we need specifically Canzuk sports tournaments.

[u/Ticklishchap → u/Due_Ad_3200]

Yes, I read that article and enjoyed it. It was posted - indeed I think you posted it - on r/Commonwealth yesterday and I replied saying that the article has made me seriously consider starting to play again.

Actually, the article inspired me to make this post because I strongly support the Commonwealth, including the sporting links, and wondered if we could have similar CANZUK activities - not instead of, but as well as, the Commonwealth events.

[u/dontcallmewinter → u/Ticklishchap]

I find it hard to see the point, except to exclude the non-CANZUK Commonwealth nations.

Genuinely interested here, what do you see a seperate four nations tournament providing that the Comm Games can't provide already?

[u/Ticklishchap → u/dontcallmewinter]

I think you have misunderstood. I strongly support the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth games. CANZUK would not be the same as the Commonwealth, however. Close sporting links, including perhaps a tournament, might help to promote the idea of CANZUK. I certainly do not think that CANZUK should be an alternative to the Commonwealth. They would exist in parallel.

[u/sneakpeekbot → u/Ticklishchap]

Here's a sneak peek of /r/commonwealth using the top posts of the year!

#1: Millions of people to celebrate Commonwealth Day on 9 March | 1 comment
#2: Enlargement of the Commonwealth | 7 comments
#3: Sri Lankan Prime Minister says Commonwealth is ‘a really important forum’ in a tense world | 0 comments

---

^{I'm a bot, beep boop | Downvote to remove | Contact | Info | Opt-out | GitHub}

[u/Capt_Zapp_Brann1gan]

A CANZUK cup could be cool. An event that takes place every x years and could have track and field, rugby, tennis, cricket, football etc too.

[u/Ticklishchap → u/Capt_Zapp_Brann1gan]

Bring it on! 🏆A CANZUK cup would be great.

[u/just_jason89 → u/Capt_Zapp_Brann1gan]

Isn't that already pretty much the Commonwealth games?

[u/Capt_Zapp_Brann1gan → u/just_jason89]

No, 4 countries vs all the Commonwealth. You don't say the Commonwealth Games, is that pretty much the Olympics.

[u/PassageNearby4091]

One more tournament for Australia to dominate the rest of us, lol.

[u/Striking_End6580 → u/PassageNearby4091]

Except in rugby union & association football.

I’m sure they’d do just fine in Aussie rules, however.

[u/Striking_End6580 → u/[deleted]]

Competitive but not dominant. Let’s see how you guys fare in the Bledisloe coming up!

[u/PassageNearby4091 → u/[deleted]]

My theory is that if Aussies suddenly took up ice hockey as a major sport, you'd be beating us within a few years.

[u/just_jason89 → u/PassageNearby4091]

Nooo Great Britain has been bouncing up and down between World Championship and Division I, Group A for years now. With no NHL player in our roster really harms us when facing nations full of NHL players. The skills gap is so big!
A fair few of the GB players are Canadians with at least one British parent.

Great Britain is ranged 18th and Australia is 39th

Interestingly, Ice Hockey is one of the VERY few sports where we compete as a combined Team Great Britain rather than England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland.
Also interestingly, the other sports where we compete as GB are often North American sports, basketball, baseball, American football.

[u/PassageNearby4091 → u/just_jason89]

GB is definitely stepping up in hockey! In the World Championships in 2024, GB played Canada in one match and really held their own, outplaying Canada for much of the game. Canada won, but it was a tight 4-2.

When I lived in the UK 25 years ago, I used to attend Superleague games after some Nottingham Panthers supporters who used to drink in the pub where I worked invited me out. Back then, I think there were only at most five or six players who were British and the rest were Canadian. I think those numbers are probably inverse today, with the majority being UK-born.

And never forget, GB did win the Gold Medal in ice hockey in 1936!

[u/spagbolshevik]

Canadians can have a go at cricket and rugby, and we can all sign up for ice hockey.

[u/Agent_Orange81]

The Commonwealth Games already exist...

[u/aholetookmyusername]

Can you imagine how hard a CANZUK cricket team would dominate?

[u/TheWednesdayCricket → u/aholetookmyusername]

It would be absolutely brutal for anyone going up against it.

[u/Still-Bridges]

A football tournament. One game of Association football, one game of Australian football, one game of rugby League, one of rugby union, one of Canadian in each country. To make sure that all players are reasonably capable and willing to play all codes, 25 players are chosen to represent the country for the whole tournament from which every game's team must be chosen - they cannot be changed between games (a code's ordinary rule for the number of interchange players per game also applies). Total prohibition on calling one code "real football" wtte or refusing to call any particular game "football". Acceptance of other names as long as they are established amongst the intended audience and exist alongside bare references to that sport as football from the same mouth/pen.

(Edit: I should also have added Gaelic football because it is played in Northern Ireland.)

[u/Ticklishchap → u/Still-Bridges]

I love this idea!
We could go back to referring to Rugby as Rugby Football. (It was known as ‘Rugger’ when I was a schoolboy and I have to say I often find myself reverting to that term.)

[u/Still-Bridges → u/Ticklishchap]

Rugby league is still called football in parts of Australia where it's the normal code. (In those areas, "rugby" refers to union.)

[u/Ok_Type_4301]

Just to show the cultural confidence of CANZUK countries, we (ignoring NZ) each developed our own unique favourite codes of sport: Football, Ice Hockey, and Aussie Rules. NZ's favourite was obviously developed in the UK.

[u/TheWednesdayCricket → u/Ok_Type_4301]

Oh my the League side of the Barassi line would argue otherwise from an Aussie perspective!

[u/Ok_Type_4301 → u/TheWednesdayCricket]

Desparately fleeing Victorians slowly erroded the Barassi line.

[u/TheWednesdayCricket]

Unfortunately I’m not sure how that can work as Canada has a very different sporting culture from the rest of us. They would be very far behind the rest of us for cricket and rugby. And if we tried to play hockey against them… that would be a VERY bad idea!

[u/TheWednesdayCricket]

For the record:

Cricket winners: We could beat them in T20. ODI is more of a toss up. They win Test

Rugby Union: Kiwis and it’s probably not very close

Rugby League: Aussies win for sure against essentially Northern England. We’d have to bring Fiji and Papua New Guinea for fun!

Ice Hockey for Canada to dominate something.

And finally… the sport that the rest of you would wrongly call soccer… that would be the most fun one.

[u/This_Comedian3955]

Idk. As a Canadian we have some participation in rugby but it’s not big.

Would be great to see more cooperation overall though.

[u/fmceee]

You're on the right spot mate

[u/MissyMurders]

Yes. Something for Commonwealth countries. If only they had a event for that. They could name it something something Games