and people started taking pictures of us again, Wrig

Having watched a bunch of older West Indian men win the World T20 title a few months ago, I was curious about the next generation of Caribbean superstars coming through. Test cricket may be dead but was the CPL the answer to keeping the game alive and healthy in the region? So I decided to watch every game of CPL 2016.Initially I was surprised at the abundance of overseas players, many of them now too old for international cricket but still keen to top up their superannuation coffers. Here I was looking for young local talent, but instead we had a Dads Army comprising Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy, Dwayne Smith, Kumar Sangakkara, Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir, Brendon McCullum, Mike Hussey, Shane Watson and Brad Hodge. With exceptions like Rovman Powell (he is special) and Evin Lewis, I saw precious few youngsters coming through to suggest that the future of West Indies cricket is rosy. Having said that, the nature of T20 cricket is such that it is entirely possible to be world champions without owning depth.The other surprising thing for a competition that did such a good job of showcasing the region was the seeming lack of pride in promoting local talent; or at least providing them with the opportunity to get international exposure. The selection of umpires and match referees, for example. Why bring in foreign match officials when your own people can gain invaluable experience? Neutrality is not an issue, so why not provide opportunities to Caribbean umpires to highlight that cricket offers more career opportunities than merely playing the game. The IPL apart, do other domestic leagues fill their ranks with foreign umpires? Is this something that can be rectified to ensure the development aspect of the game extends further than just finding new on-field talent?Even the commentary team lacked local flavour. I was looking forward to hearing those magnificent West Indian accents with local insights, but there was only one regular Caribbean voice to be heard - Daren Ganga. Some of the Australian commentators on show during the tournament are virtual unknowns even in their home country. Why not give the microphone to a few more West Indians? Importing commentators is perhaps understandable in countries where English is not the first language, but in the Caribbean? By taking the game to the USA, the league did its best to infiltrate a niche market, but it may have gone too far by giving them a product that tried too hard to replicate baseball - the large number of rank full-tosses delivered throughout the tournament was astonishing considering were talking of full-time professional cricketers, who presumably do very little else with their lives except practise these basic skills. My guess is that roughly 20% of balls bowled under pressure did not hit the pitch. That is a stunningly high error rate for any profession. It is one thing for batsmen like Gayle, Bravo, Andre Russell, Chris Lynn and the like to hit good-length balls into the grandstand, but when they are regularly fed knee-high full tosses, it beggars belief that this is an expression of skill at the elite end of the spectrum. This is a global pandemic and not confined to the CPL, to be fair.Youd expect the T20 format to be the domain of the fit and the athletic, but increasingly that is not quite the case. Maybe it is the longer form of the game, albeit played at a lower intensity, where there is no room for the twin ravages of age and injury. At various stages of the CPL, Gayle, Russell, Bravo, Tanvir, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Kieron Pollard were anything but 100% fit, and yet they were among the most dangerous players in the tournament. McCullum was the exception - his back injury clearly troubled him to the point where his performances with bat and in the field were compromised. The evergreen Hodge too, fine player that he was, looked like age had finally caught up with him.The other big surprise was the abject quality of outfield catching. I base my judgement not on the few brilliant catches that will inevitably feature in a highlights reel but on the number of regulation skiers that were shelled. Trinbago Knight Riders and St Kitts & Nevis Patriots were particularly poor in this regard. While the acts of brilliance leave one breathless, I have a suspicion that maybe the sheer volume of cricket played is resulting in laziness and fatigue when it comes to these basic skills.Generally speaking, the games were played in typically Caribbean good spirit, except whenever *Kieron Pollard was involved. Aggro seems to be his constant companion. Lendl Simmons too has a bit of that tendency in him, but the smiling elder statesmen like Sammy, Bravo, McCullum and Amla were consistently in good humour throughout.What was revealing in regard to why West Indies are such a dangerous T20 team was the lack of interest the local players showed in trick shots: laps, reverse sweeps and the like. Most of the cute stuff came from the overseas players. The local lads strategy was refreshingly simple - and perhaps offered an insight into why they are world champions, capable of chasing down any target. Clear that front leg and wait for that inevitable full toss. See ball, hit ball, hit it long, man! Just ask Ben Stokes.*16:40:54 GMT, August 8, 2016: The article originally said Kieran Powell instead of Kieron Pollard Cheap Tim Tebow Jersey . How great will be revealed in the next couple of days at the board of governors meeting in Pebble Beach, Calif. Cheap Nolan Ryan Jersey . -- Catcher Brett Hayes has agreed to a $630,000, one-year contract with the Kansas City Royals, avoiding salary arbitration. http://www.cheapmetsjerseys.com/ . -- Anaheim Ducks defenceman Luca Sbisa will be out at least six weeks with a torn tendon in his right hand. Cheap Darryl Strawberry Jersey . The Oilers come in having lost five in a row (0-4-1) and 16 of their last 20 games, dropping a 2-1 decision to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday. Cheap Tom Seaver Jersey .B. -- The Baie-Comeau Drakkar took over sole possession of first place atop the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Thursday with their sixth straight win. VILLANOVA, Pa. -- Bang.Jay Wright calmly mouthed one word when Kris Jenkins hit the 3-pointer at the buzzer that won Villanova a national championship. The Wildcats returned home the next day for a pep rally at the campus football stadium, and their celebratory victory tour has barely slowed down since April.The White House. Wall Street. The ESPYs. The ticker tape parade. The Philadelphia professional sports teams feted the Wildcats with first pitch, first puck, first tip fun. Wright delivered a pep talk to the Eagles. Basketball and Basilica in Spain. Whats the next chapter? Read all about it in Wrights upcoming book, Attitude.Wright sat down with The Associated Press to talk about his favorite moments from a summer where the Wildcats reigned as the national champions. Here are some of his memories from what Wright called, a wild offseason. Wild. And great.---HAIL TO THE CHAMPSPresident Barack Obama welcomed Villanova in May to the White House and congratulated the Wildcats for winning what he described as maybe the best title game of all time.Waiting to be introduced, Wright chitchatted with Obama where the two discussed, well, basketball, of course. Obamas brother-in-law is former college hoops player and Oregon State coach Craig Robinson and the president fills out an NCAA Tournament bracket every year. He even picked the Wildcats to win the national championship in 2015 (and lost).He really knows our business, really knows it well, Wright said. Its funny to hear the president of the United States say how difficult a job we have. And youre hearing it from the president! But we had a really insightful conversation about college coaching that was awesome to me.---`CATS & BIRDS:Wright was invited by the Philadelphia Eagles to give a private pep talk to coaches and players in June.It was all about just being loyal to each other, the Eagles, the coaches and players. Theyre my favorite team, Wright said. I had met (coach) Doug Pederson because of (former coach) Andy Reid and I was friends with Andy.I would say the talk with the President was first and then the Eagles, that was really cool.---EMPTY HANDEDWright was in Washington for a leadership summit at the Pentagon when he met Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw back in 2014. Kershaw was in town to face the Nationals and the two bumped into each other at the Ritz.Kershaw was excited to reunite with Wright two years later on the red carpet for the ESPYs .dddddddddddde was like, `I want to take a picture with the ring. Ive got to get one of those, I dont have one of those, Wright said, laughing.Kershaw then threw Wright a curve -- that the Wildcats werent going to win any awards.He said, `Did you win? Wright said. I was like, well, we were nominated for three. As he said it, I realized, we would know if we won. He kind of started backing off. `No, no, no. I just remember last year I was up for one and the guy who won knew he won. It hit me before we went in there, we probably didnt win. We would have known if we won.---MOVING ONThe Wildcats stamped their passports for an eight-day tour of Spain that included three exhibition games against Spanish Select teams . The Wildcats toured Barcelona and Madrid in relative anonymity and avoided mobs of autograph seekers.Little known fact, Villanova is named for a Spanish Augustinian, Thomas Garc?a (1486-1555), the son of a miller who was born in Fuenllana, a village near Villanueva de los Infantes, Castile, Spain.Known fact, fans know who the Wildcats are in Philadelphia.We got back and people started taking pictures of us again, Wright said. It smacked us right in the face. In Spain, no one knew us. No one bothered us. But we got smacked in the face waiting for our bags. Everybody started asking for pictures because we were all together. It was all just a smack in the face of reality.---INSTANT REPLAYWright has watched a replay of the national championship game twice. He watched it with a coachs eye on the plane ride back from Houston and one more time with his family just days after the championship parade in Philadelphia.We listened to timeouts, we listened to Raff and Jim Nantz and Grant Hill, he said. We tried to get a feel for what people really saw and listened to. It took us like, three hours to watch the game. We kept rewinding stuff. We had a lot of fun with it. That was it. That was the last time.But video of Jenkins shot is on a continuous loop plays in the lobby of Villanovas basketball complex -- and the fun hasnt ended yet.Its been everything, Wright said. But we started practice on Friday and I kind of feel like officially, its over. ' ' '