When your country's population is 14...

THERE is often talk of a nation getting behind its sports people as they march into international competition, but when the national team in question comprises almost half the population, the support becomes a little more personal.

Whatever the sport, and whatever the event, the weight of a nation’s pride momentarily rests on the shoulders of the national team. If they are triumphant, the nation rejoices, welcomes the team home, adores them from afar and then watches them disappear from the radar as they return to some well-earned privacy.

If they lose, the team merely slinks home, conscious they have already drifted out of the public eye as their compatriots grumble briefly at a poor return for their emotional investment.