- published: 18 Apr 2016
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A National sports team (commonly known as a national team or national side), is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in a sport.
The term is most commonly associated with team sports; however it can be applied to groups of individuals representing a country in where regular play is individuals by aggregating individual scores to a get a team result[clarification needed].
National teams often compete at various levels and age groups and there are number of different selection criteria for national teams. National teams are not always composed of the best available individual players.
National teams, like other sporting teams are often grouped, by sex, age or other criteria. The most prestigious national teams are often the senior men's team, however they may not be the most popular or successful.
The popularity and notability of a national team depends on a number of factors.
Popularity of a national team also depends on the popularity of the sport in that country. In some countries a particular sport is very popular and sometimes a national sport. A national team may be popular even though the competition it competes in is not. For example, the Papua New Guinea national rugby league team is extremely popular because the sport is popular in the country, even though the highest competition it competes in - the Rugby League World Cup - is not. In that case, we can see that, even though the sport is popular in that country, the general level they are playing is not so high or lower than other countries that they want to compete with. For example, even if Korean national Handball league team is not so popular because handball is not popular sport in Korea, they sometimes get gold medals in Olympics or World Cup Games. In that cases, even if the team is not so popular, the Games they participate in becomes so popular. That's why the players of such teams have more confident roles on the society like Korean handball players nowadays.