James Sutherland, Cricket Australia CEO, wants to know why Australias Test team performed so poorly in the recent Sri Lanka series despite spending more time in Asia than just about any generation of cricketers before them.In a pointer to the lines of enquiry to be pursued following the 3-0 defeat to an unfancied opponent that cost Australia the No. 1 Test ranking, Sutherland said he was somewhat mystified as to why ever more frequent visits to India in particular had not translated into better displays in the region. The loss of the third Test in Colombo meant Australia have now lost nine Tests in Asia in a row over three series.If you have a look going back in time over recent years, some of our Test cricketers are playing more in India than theyve ever played before, Sutherland said in Melbourne. Theyre used to subcontinental conditions through their experiences in the IPL and on other tours representing Australia. These are conditions we are more familiar with perhaps than we have been in decades gone by, and it comes back to the ability to adapt. Thats something Ill be interested to hear more about.Its probably a whole lot of different things. The critical thing is adaptability to conditions and thats what we ought to understand better. Clearly conditions here are very different to England, which are very different to what we see on the subcontinent, and to be the best team in the world, to be the No. 1 team, you need to be able to win away, and thats what were about.In reflecting on the conditions faced by the players, Sutherland said little more could be done in terms of pre-tour preparation, and also expressed the view that the pitches encountered at Pallekele, Galle and Colombo were more or less as had been expected. Were certainly disappointed with the performances of the team in this Sri Lankan series and the review will tell us more but I dont think we can complain in terms of the preparation we had over there in Sri Lanka, he said.I dont think there would be any expectation gaps in terms of the facilities and the pitch condition we expected to find over there. I dont think things are clearly broken, but at the same time we need to get better at adapting to conditions. In different parts of the country there are pitches prepared for different situations, certainly weve got hybrid pitches that have been developed at the NCC, theyre things that were continuing to progress. But its one thing to have those conditions and facilities, another to provide opportunities for players to do that.Sutherland also said Australian cricket is searching for ways to ensure more of its 1.31 million participants graduate from junior programs to club teams and the levels above even as the latest survey of participation revealed the game had outstripped Australian football as the most popular sport in the country.Another year of steady gains in 2015-16, following a similar increase in 2014-15 and an Ashes-inspired spike the season before now allows Cricket Australia to boast that there are more cricket participants than in any other game, outstripping the 1.25 million registered triers of Australian football reported by the AFL last year.These numbers are driven largely by school-age Milo Into Cricket and Twenty20 Blast programs, with high female participation and increased engagement by diverse Australian communities also factors. However, the number of players actually registered as club or community cricketers lags some way behind at 454,657, albeit a rise of 9.5% on last years figures.Sutherland said that the games custodians were looking intently for ways to ensure the stream of players running from junior and school programs to clubs and ultimately the higher echelons of the game would increase.Its a lot about that experience and about creating a positive learning environment and a fun environment for kids to play the sport, Sutherland said in Melbourne. I think thats where the T20 Blast has allowed kids to bridge between entry level programs and playing what some people might call real cricket. Weve seen success but also sustained participation through into the teenage years. Very pleasing in these results to see growth in that area for the first time in a couple of years.The total number of participants increased by 8.5% when lined up against that of 2015, which had itself been 9% up on 2014. However, the increase three years ago had been a more dramatic 16% following a victorious Ashes summer. Given the fate that had just befallen Australias Test side in Sri Lanka, Sutherland did not want to draw too close a link, but acknowledged team performance and grassroots participation could certainly help one another.I think there were a number of things that kicked in that year, certainly that was one of the formative years in terms of the T20 Blast but also we saw significant growth in those entry level programs with the Milo Into Cricket program, he said of 2014. What wed like to see is those entry level programs be a continuous wave for us into the junior secondary years and see some sort of sustainable participation particularly at club level.In some ways they certainly do complement each other, but at the same time weve now gone down to No. 3 in the world on the Test rankings, were still no. 1 in one-day cricket. From that perspective the profile of the game is still high and I think the aspiration of young people to play cricket at the highest level will continue to be there. In time when we come to review the Sri Lanka series well take a very keen interest in what the recommendations coming out of that are. Dee Gordon Jersey .7 million, one-year contract, a raise of $2.2 million. Wieters had asked for $8.75 million and the Orioles had offered $6. Robinson Cano Jersey . -- Washington Redskins tight end Fred Davis was charged Thursday with driving while intoxicated, a day after he was suspended for an NFL substance-abuse policy violation. http://www.marinersrookiestore.com/Mariners-Felix-Hernandez-Kids-Jersey/ . The International Olympic Committee released the official list of bid cities on Friday after the deadline for applications had passed. The candidates -- all previously announced in their own countries -- are: Almaty, Kazakhstan; Beijing; Krakow, Poland; Lviv, Ukraine; Oslo, Norway; and Stockholm. Hisashi Iwakuma Jersey . Just not the game. Kyle Palmieri scored two straight goals in the third period to rally the Anaheim Ducks past the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 on Tuesday night. Guillermo Heredia Jersey . 4 Villanova with a 96-68 drubbing on Monday. Wragge hit 9-of-14 from behind the arc, matching Kyle Korvers school record for 3-pointers in a game set in 2003, as Creighton (16-3, 6-1 Big East broke a conference record with 21 treys in the rout. Claire Smith, the first African-American female newspaper reporter to cover Major League Baseball on a daily basis, has won the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, the top honor for a baseball writer.The Spink Award goes to a writer for meritorious contributions to baseball writing and is presented during Hall of Fame Weekend, July 28-31, 2017, in Cooperstown, New York. The announcement, based on balloting by the Baseball Writers Association of America, was made Tuesday during the winter meetings.Smith, who received 272 votes from 449 ballots, including three blanks, represented the New York chapter of the BBWAA.Smith is a coordinating editor for ESPNs universal news group, with an emphasis on baseball. She previously worked as a reporter for the Hartford Courant, as a national baseball columnist at The New York Times and as a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer.Smith was given a standing ovation when her election was announced, and she asked the other half dozen women in the room to stand alongside her as she spoke.Her voice quavering, Smith thanked the guys that stood up to the athletes and teams and said that we are your peers and we deserve to be treated like you.I want to thank you as well as the women who walked the walk and fought the battles and got all of us to this point, she said. No one does this by themselves.Among Smiths other honors, she has earned the Legacy Award from the National Association of Black Journalists in 2011 and the Mary Garber Pioneer Award from the Association for Women inn Sports Media in 2000.dddddddddddd. Smith also has been honored with the Sam Lacy Legacy Award by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and MLB.com.Smith, 62, is a trailblazer for women in sports media and fought for equal access. Notably, she was physically removed from the clubhouse by San Diego Padres players in the 1984 National League Championship Series with the Chicago Cubs. Former MLB commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who once fought to keep female sports writers out of major league clubhouses, later called her the best baseball writer in America.Scott Powers, deputy sports editor of the Courant, said he uses Claire as an example to new writers of how to treat co-workers. Such a kind person to editors working inside, and writers in the field, he said. Pure grace under fire.When an earthquake struck at the 1989 World Series in Oakland, California, Powers said Smith was there with another Courant writer, Jack OConnell. When Smith was finally able to find a working phone, her first question to Powers was, I cant find Jack. Have you heard from Jack? After he was able to reassure her that Jack was fine, and she made sure he contacted Jacks family, a magnificent, newsy story was filed by Claire, Powers said.Award finalist Jim Reeves, the longtime Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist and Texas Rangers beat writer, received 118 votes; Juan Vene, of the South Florida chapter, had 56. Cheap Jerseys Store Cheap NFL T-shirts Wholesale Nike NFL Jerseys China NFL Jerseys White Cheap NFL Jerseys Camo Wholesale Jerseys China NFL Jerseys Outlet Cheap Jerseys Wholesale China Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Hoodies Camo China NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Wholesale Cheap NFL Jerseys Camo NFL Jerseys China ' ' '