I spend a fair amount of time in the USA and am very fond of the country and its people. However, like many travellers from across the world I do get a little frustrated by the apparent parochialism of some of the television stations and other media which sometimes give the impression that America IS the world

I appreciate that the US is a huge country – the UK could fit into it 38 times! – but it’s not the only country in the world and it’s not even the biggest. Its northern neighbour, Canada, for example is actually bigger but that’s by the by.

What prompted this missive is the lack of television coverage of the current Rugby Union World Cup, a true world event with participants from across the globe, unlike for example, Baseball’s “World Series” which comprises 31 American teams and 1 Canadian. It’s somewhat risible that the winners of that annual competition are referred to as “World Champions”!

I was in Tennessee for part of the Rugby World Cup which for the benefit of any Americans not in the know, is taking place, right now, in little old England and Wales, two quaint little places across the Atlantic Ocean – basically take a right at New York and keep going once you reach Ireland!

I spent ages scrolling through the 250 channels or whatever on my hotel TV set and narrowed my search down to approximately 12 sports channels the majority of which were showing College Football (amateur American Football played by students), replays of College Football, last year’s ice hockey and Sunday’s fishing competitions. Rugby? I may as well have been looking for The Martian Decathlon!

It’s even more maddening when all bar a couple of Americans I spoke to in Nashville (and they were rugby players themselves) were even aware that the USA has a team in the competition. The US team got as far as England as it happens, but that’s not saying much in fairness!

Anyway, the point is this, America is a wonderful country with an awful lot going for it and an awful lot going on but, US television broadcasters take note, there really is a great big world out there just waiting to be discovered by your viewers; honestly!