r, but theyre also the only team in the league thats still in sir, but theyre also the only team in the league thats still in si | Forum

At 11. Vapormax New Zealand .43am Eastern Caribbean Time on April 11, 2004, Brian Lara swept Gareth Batty towards fine leg, towards the Antigua Recreation Grounds scoreboard, and caused the number next to his name to change from 399 to 400.At 11.43pm, or thereabouts, on July 25, 2016, there are no names on the scoreboard, only vacant rectangular slots next to the batting positions, through which shines the feeble yellow-green light of streetlamps filtered through leaves. The scoreboard looms over the unlit side of the ground. The other side, separated by barricades covered with sponsor logos, is all light and noise and teenage hopes and aspirations.Its Carnival time in Antigua and Barbuda, and tonights main event is Teen Splash, a talent pageant for boys and girls from schools all around the country.The turf that Lara bent to kiss is somewhere under a platform flanked by video screens. On the platform, and near-simultaneously on the screen, contestants have been singing, dancing and performing spoken-word poetry for about two hours.Not long before he got to 400, Lara had danced down the pitch and launched Batty into the Sir Vivian Richards pavilion to go from 374 to 380, going past 375 along the way. The numbers need no explanation. Now, just below the pavilion - flanked to the right by a packed Andy Roberts Stand - is a carousel, its riders rotating and revolving simultaneously around a central pole with rows of unlit bulbs on it, planets orbiting a heatless, lightless sun.The words cricket fan are enough to convince a security guard to allow us into the visitors dressing room (the home one is shut). It should feel like a sacred place, a sanctum sanctorum, but it doesnt. Lockers, a few worse-for-wear chairs; this could be a gymnasium locker room from a sitcom set in a high school. Of all the bits and pieces of this old, great ground, this place exerts the feeblest psycho-geographic pull. This away dressing room contains no ghosts of cricket past: no traces of blood from Anil Kumbles jaw, no teardrops shed by all the bowlers ground into the dust by Lara, pummeled by Viv, defeated by the worlds flattest pitch.The strongest echoes of the past, strangely, though perhaps not, are to be found in the parts of the ground that have fallen into disuse, in the faded lettering of the scoreboard, the rusted, falling-apart staircase at the back of the double-decker stand, its entrance boarded up.This is no longer Antiguas premier cricket venue. The new, modern stadium, clearly a stadium and not a ground, occupies, like so many new, modern stadiums around the world do, a patch of land that is, between matches, nowhere in particular. An in-between place that residents of Seatons or Willikies might drive past on their way into town. A place that isnt far from anywhere - Antigua is a tiny, tiny island - but feels like it; a place that makes you wonder if its worth going all the way to watch a weak, meek West Indies side crumble without complaint against a good but by no means world-beating India. The Antigua Recreation Ground, the ARG, or the Rec, is different. It is packed now mostly by teenagers who make you feel old, and who may or may not be into cricket. It feels like a Test match here might draw healthy crowds as well, though perhaps not be as large or as young. You can imagine fans debating a players merits at the concession stalls behind the double-decker stand, leaving wet circles on the tables with the bases of their Wadadli bottles. You step out of the gates and youre in the heart of town, right next to an arch welcoming you to St Johns.There are food stalls all around you, and lanes pulsing with life lead in all directions. It may not look like this on non-Carnival nights, but unlike at the new stadium, you will never step into desolation two hours after close of play, wondering how youll ever find a cab home, with a spectacular purple sunset unfolding uselessly around you.The festivities continue well past midnight, and as the Rec becomes a speck behind you, the pageant continues on the radio. It is time for the question-answer round, and the contestants, most of them only 16 or 17, are asked their views about everything from global warming to abortion. Some questions are more innocuous, such as the one posed to delegate number 17: Do texting applications like WhatsApp ruin the ability of teens to construct proper sentences?You pass the new stadium just as he begins his answer. The Test match is over. Nothing to see here, gents. The Wadadli inside you, the English Harbour, the hot dogs and the sticks of satay, begin to take effect and you drowse in the passenger seat. Good night, Antigua, and sweet dreams. Of prancing left-handed magicians launching sixes into dancing double-decker stands. Air Max Plus 97 Nz . Their experience showed Tuesday as the No. 10 Badgers blunted a Saint Louis surge to win 63-57 and advance to face West Virginia in Wednesdays finals of the Cancun Challenge. Nike Vapormax Wholesale China . Jeff Green scored 13 points and Kris Humphries 12 for the Celtics, who nearly blew an 18-point, second-half lead. Sullingers 20-20 was the first by a Celtics player since Kevin Garnetts first game in Boston in 2007. Garnett was dealt -- along with Paul Pierce -- to Brooklyn during the off-season. http://www.airvapormaxnz.com/vapormax-2019-sale-nz.html . Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC failed to make the postseason while Montreal Impact fell at the first hurdle losing heavily to Houston Dynamo in the Eastern Conference Knockout Round. Week 1 is a liar.The first week of the NFL season assured us, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the Rams were an irretrievable trash fire, the Cardinals were in trouble, Jameis Winston was an MVP front-runner, and the Cowboys couldnt score with Dak Prescott at quarterback.Remember? Yeah, not so much on those.Week 2 is also a liar, as is any NFL week if taken as a singular entity. The difference is that Week 2 is only 50 percent of our evidence when we sit down to sort through it. Week 1, at its expiration, is 100 percent.With that in mind, heres a look at what we think we learned from Week 2, and a few things we think will turn out to not matter much at all.Rex Ryan is toastThis is from Thursday, but it bears resurrection. The Bills are 0-2, have already fired their offensive coordinator, and face the Cardinals and the Patriots the next two weeks. That smells a lot like 0-4, and the dysfunction is obvious from miles away. Ryan said hed be the first to go if the team didnt win, and instead it was Greg Roman. So Im not buying anything he says. Instead, Im buying Frank Reich head-coaching futures in upstate New York, especially if Carson Wentz has a big year in Philly.The Steelers and Bengals should play two more times this?seasonAll the pregame talk about ugliness and hatred obscured the fact that these are two really good teams, capable of just trying to outplay each other without anyone fighting or getting suspended. No one should be surprised if they meet in the playoffs again. Pittsburghs defense has started out hot. And after the Bengals get done with this September combination of body blows the schedule-makers dealt them, they should find themselves a nice rhythm.Whats real about the Giants is their opportunityThe Giants started each of the past three years 0-2. They started each of the past five years 0-1. Now theyre 2-0 for the first time since 2009, back when the Tom Coughlin narrative (believe it or not) was that his teams started strong and faded down the stretch. This sets up the Giants in a way they havent been set up in some time and gives them a chance to just about put away 0-2 defending division champ Washington in Week 3. Now look ... the Giants have won their two games by a combined four points, they havent finished .500 since 2012, and their October schedule features trips to Minnesota, Green Bay and London. So Id hold off a few weeks before printing the playoff tickets. But what we know about the Giants for sure is that theyre 2-0, and its been quite a while since theyve been in that position.Philip Rivers is a bad manSeriously, Rivers?is the most underrated quarterback of his generation. He loses Keenan Allen in the first half of his Week 1 game. He loses Danny Woodhead in the first half of his Week 2 game. But who has eight kids and the third-best passer rating in the NFL right now? Thats right. THAT guy. Nike Air Max Plus Tn Ultra Nz. . The Chargers might?not be on your AFC West contender radar, but they still have -- easily -- the divisions best quarterback. And one of these weeks, hes going to make it through a whole game without losing a critical offensive weapon.The Browns cant have nice thingsJosh McCown spent the first half of Sundays game lighting up the Ravens and making it clear that coach Hue Jackson hadnt chosen the best quarterback on his roster as his Week 1 starter. But then McCown got hurt and the Browns gave away a 20-point lead, and now they will start their fifth different starting quarterback in as many games. It remains entirely possible that Cleveland, which has an insufficient number of NFL-caliber players on its roster, will lose all 16 games this year. Its also still possible (though somewhat less likely) that the Browns will use 16 different starting quarterbacks to do it. No matter who they throw in there, they wont be able to protect him. The only thing that can start to fix this is a dozen or so 2017 draft picks.The Raiders miss Mario Edwards Jr.I know its not that simple -- theres plenty of blame to go around on a Raiders defense that has allowed more than 500 yards in each of its first two games. But the absence of Edwards from the line might?be a bigger deal than was originally thought when he went on the PUP list to start the season. If you look at it in terms of the Broncos defense -- the one Jack Del Rio was running before he became the Raiders coach -- Edwards plays the Derek Wolfe role. Edwards can disrupt on the edge or mix things up inside, and his versatility allows the edge rushers to move around and do their thing. Oakland has only two sacks, and the pass rush may not fully come around until the front seven gets whole again.Theres no reason to change your opinion of the RamsA week ago, everyone was ripping the Rams for looking lifeless against the Niners. Then L.A. goes out and knocks off Seattle in a touchdown-free wreck of a game for which the Rams should be ashamed to have charged admission. But dont buy it. The Rams are 4-1 against Seattle and 10-19 against everyone else since the start of 2014. Their defensive line is all theyve got, and its all they had last year when they went 7-9. They have the Seahawks number, but theyre also the only team in the league thats still in single digits in points for the year.The Cardinals and Panthers can still whip youAfter tough losses to AFC powers in Week 1, last years NFC Championship Game participants combined for 86 points in their Week 2 get-right games. Whether you prefer Carson Palmers pregame marshmallow man suit or Cam Newtons postgame carnival barker hat, you have to realize these teams arent going away anytime soon. ' ' '