News » e possibility of playing tier-two Test cricket would be an ide

DOVER, Del. -- Denny Hamlin has another top spot in his comeback from a back injury. Hell need to turn poles into checkered flags if he wants to make a serious run at a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship. Hamlin turned a lap of 157.978 mph Friday to win the pole at Dover International Speedway. He won the pole last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway and has three overall this season. But a four-race absence because of his injury has him needing wins to make the Chase and race for his first career championship. Hamlin, who finished fourth last week, has never won at Dover. He has only a 19.6 average finish in 14 career races on the mile track. Hamlins fourth-place finish moved him up three spots to 24th in the standings, 53 points out of 20th position, where hed need to be to be eligible for one of two wild-card berths. "I feel like were hitting our stride," he said. "Were running really well at different types of race tracks. Overall, Im pretty happy. We still need to get those race wins." Martin Truex Jr., who raced to his only career Cup victory at Dover, will start second and joined Hamlin for an all-Toyota front row. Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman rounded out the top five. Busch and Kenseth also drive Toyotas. Points leader Jimmie Johnson qualified 24th. Carl Edwards, second in the points, was 18th. Danica Patrick will start 39th. Hamlin showed he continues to be on the mend after being sidelined for four races with a compression fracture in his lower spine following a March 24 crash involving former teammate Joey Logano. Hamlin is 97 points out of the top 10 and an automatic berth in the Chase. He and Johnson are the only two drivers to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup every year theyve been eligible. "Weve been qualifying pretty good, which has really helped out our cause with our race finishes," Hamlin said. Truex, from nearby Mayetta, N.J., has long considered Dover his home track. His 2007 victory propelled him into the Chase, and another win Sunday would not only end a six-year drought, but bolster his spot in the top 10. He enters Sundays race ninth in the standings. "You always want to come here and get the pole," Truex said. "I love this place so much and have so many fans in this area." Truex finished seventh and sixth in last years two Cup races at Dover. Truex wants to win in front of all his family and friends. Hamlin pretty much has to win before time totally runs out for him to make the Chase. "I think our only play is to be aggressive," Hamlin said. "I think that to come here and try to get a good points day is irrelevant because if we dont win, then were not really accomplishing much." Nike Zoom China Wholesale . With Parker having a quiet game for once, Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw provided the scoring as France won its first major basketball title by beating Lithuania 80-66 on Sunday. It was a victory that ended a decade of frustration for Parker and a talented French generation, which lost the final against Spain two years ago and took bronze in 2005. Nike Zoom Online Shop . Now that hes hitting streaking teammates with pin-point passes for easy layups, Love is asserting himself as one of the true superstars in the league. http://www.nikezoomoutlet.com/ . "I wrote 36 on my sheet at the beginning of the game," the Cincinnati coach said, referring the yard line the ball would need to be snapped from. Nike Zoom Wholesale . Its an influence in football and a big part of the game. Nike Zoom Outlet . Olli Jokinen, Mark Scheifele, and Bryan Little each had a goal and an assist as Winnipeg won 5-2, handing Calgary its record-setting seventh consecutive loss on home ice. The ICC recently set aside a proposal to divide Test cricket into two tiers.The idea of dividing Test-playing nations into two leagues is often accompanied by a proposal to turn bilateral Test tours into components of a larger league. It is not clear why spectators would be more likely to watch a Test match today because it is part of a Test championship where the title will be awarded three years from now. The argument about context seems to be little more than a rhetorical device for justifying the shrinking of the highest level of cricket to a competition among seven teams. Though the proposal has been shelved for now, the actions of crickets administrators in recent years suggest that under the guise of making the game more competitive, Test cricket will eventually be reduced to a smaller competition.In the 21st century, as cricket has become a lucrative commodity for television broadcasters, no board has been able to resist the temptation to shape things in a way that suits the interests of broadcasters. This is especially true about T20, the most lucrative format, one made for TV.Since the first T20 game was played in 2003, the number of matches played each year has grown. This growth spurt peaked in 2013, when 731 T20 matches were played globally. In January 2016, 180 T20 matches were played, the most in a single month to date. Further increases in T20 cricket are proposed. In June 2016, the BCCI announced plans for a mini-IPL. A new city-based T20 league is also planned in England. This will probably be in addition to the existing 133-match domestic T20 tournament that features county teams.T20 started out as a seasonal game. From 2003 to 2009, about 60% of all T20 games were played in the four months from April through July. This pattern changed in the period from 2010 to 2015, when T20 games were distributed more evenly through the year.This has had an effect on Test and ODI cricket. A total of 1009 ODIs were played from 2003 to 2009 (144 per year), and 781 were played in 2010-15 (130 per year). Both periods included two World Cup tournaments. If we consider ODI matches featuring only the top eight Test-playing nations (setting aside matches involving Bangladesh for the sake of even comparison), 84 matches per year were played from 2003 to 09, 75 in 2010-15.Test cricket has been similarly affected. A total of 309 Tests were played in 2003-09 (44 per year), 252 in 2010-15 (42 per year). If you consider only matches featuring Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies, New Zealand and South Africa, 69 were played in 2003-09 (about ten per year), 54 in 2010-15 (nine per year). Considering matches involving only India, Australia and England, 40 Tests were played in 2003-09 (5.7 per year), 47 were played in 2010-15 (7.8 per year). Since his Test debut in November 2010, Kane Williamson has played 52 Tests. In the same period Alastair Cook has played 73.While the five smaller established nations - South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies, have played less Test cricket among themselves in 2010-15 compared to 2003-09, the record is the opposite in ODI cricket. From 2003 to 2009, they averaged 24 ODIs per year. In 2010-15, this increased to 26 ODIs per year.International cricket has been mauled by the pressure of T20 into featuring the more lucrative short-form games. It is important to remember that this does not mean Test cricket does not generate revenue. However, given the existence of highly lucrative shorter forms, the incentive to play less lucrative forms is reduced.If Test cricket is divided into two tiers, and if the top tier is designed to include seven teams, it will effectively mean shrinking Test cricket from a ten-team sport to a seven-team sport. This will codify and accelerate a process that, as the data shows, began early this decade. The Big Three - India, Australia and England - have played a larger share of Tests than before.dddddddddddd They also host the biggest T20 leagues. The star players from the five second-tier Test-playing nations will be easily lured away by various T20 franchises. Most crucially, whereas T20 leagues today have to compete with a ten-team Test match sport, they will effectively have to compete with only a seven-team sport. Imagine being one of top eight established nations relegated to the second-tier Test league. It effectively means being banned from quality Test match competition for one league cycle. For many players, it could mean the end of their Test careers.If a tier system has to be created, it should not depend on splitting the existing set of Test teams. At worst, perhaps Zimbabwe could be the lead team of the second tier, which could involve teams ranked 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 in the world, with the possibility of one team moving up or down following a play-off. That would genuinely expand the game. It would give at least three to four teams in this second tier a realistic chance for promotion. It will also protect the established Test nations from the danger of relegation, which could prove catastrophic to their prospects as a Test-playing power. Existing Test nations must be protected from the vicious cycle of not getting games, becoming worse as a result, and then not getting games because they are worse than they used to be.It is not clear how the purpose of growing the game will be served if the highest, most difficult level is practised by fewer teams than before. It is true that Bangladesh v England at Lords is likely to be one-sided in the short term (or even in the medium term), but Bangladesh will benefit from the experience, just as India, Pakistan and New Zealand did from the many tours they undertook in the years after World War II.Conventional wisdom has it that T20 is a gateway drug to cricket. It is a method to introduce the game to new audiences and potential playing populations. The evidence suggests that it has played out the other way. Cricket has been the gateway drug to T20. T20 leagues came into being because all the ingredients for making profits were already in place thanks to decades of cricket.Cricket did not develop in India because it was a popular sport for the masses. It developed because there was a critical mass of organised clubs in the big cities of British India (and later independent India). These clubs were organised into a board, which in turn organised bigger tournaments and put together a representative team whose exploits made the sport popular in other parts of the country. The possibility of playing tier-two Test cricket would be an ideal stepping stone for Associate Member teams that currently compete in tournaments like the Intercontinental Cup. Just like with clubs in Mumbai or Colombo, given the opportunity, clubs in Associate member countries could learn to produce competitive representative teams. If these teams are successful, it is possible that they will be popular. This will eventually invite private investors. Private enterprise typically takes root only in conditions where the likelihood of success is already reasonably high.A two-tier system along the lines of the proposal that has been shelved for now will probably serve the short-term interests of the established boards. A greater concentration of highly competitive games will mean more money in TV contracts the next time these are negotiated. Does the reduction of the games highest form to a competition between seven teams serve any purpose beyond gaining a few extra percentage points in revenue in the next TV contract negotiations? Administrators ought to keep one eye on where they would like cricket to be in, say, 2050 and weigh that against the benefits of a few extra dollars in 2019. ' ' '