Originally Posted by
escobert
I like watching the world cup, I wish they had a big tournament like that for every major sport.
I'd be surprised if they don't. I know that there is the IFAF World Championship for American Football, for example, although the US didn't participate in the first two and fielded a heavily weakened team for the second two (but still won both). But most global sports have a world cup of some kind. It just happens that some sports popular in America are not so popular outside of America, and thus world cups for these sports aren't as popular or provide as good viewing.
Oh, and this only goes for team sports, generally. Obviously individual sports tend to have multiple people from some countries etc.
World's Popular Sports and their World Cups
Football - FIFA World Cup
Cricket - ICC Cricket World Cup (one day game) & ICC World Twenty20 (2-4 hour game)
Basketball - FIBA Basketball World Cup
Baseball - World Baseball Classic
Volleyball - Volleyball World Championship
Field Hockey - Hockey World Cup
Ice Hockey - Ice Hockey World Championships
American Football - IFAF World Championship
Rugby Union - Rugby World Cup
Rugby League - Rugby League World Cup
Rugby Sevens - Rugby World Cup Sevens
Handball - World Handball Championship
Bowling - WTBA World Championships
More can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._championships