Professional sport is far richer than it has ever been, and yet all sports seem united by a desire to generate even more cash. The motivation is the same, whether it is in FIFAs wish to expand the World Cup beyond 32 teams, India playing West Indies in a T20I series in Florida, or in the NFL playing three games in October in London.While cricket attempts to take hold in America, so Americas game attempts to grow in England. This year is the tenth consecutive one in which regular season games in American football have been held in London. What began as an idiosyncratic novelty has gradually become an accepted part of the British sporting calendar. The number of games per season in London has risen from one to three and will rise further, to four in 2018. Even as the number of matches has swelled, it has not been able to keep pace with demand.Of the 15 NFL matches that have been played at Wembley Stadium to date, only one has not been a sell-out. Sky Sports now televises more than 100 live games a year, and the average audience has doubled in the past decade. Meanwhile the BBCs highlights show, which launched last year, now receives a total audience of one million. The BBC also shows four live games every year - the three in London and the Super Bowl, the NFLs annual championship game.Games in London are a deliberate loss leader, Alistair Kirkwood, head of NFL Europe, explained earlier this year. The matches make a loss for the NFL because of the costs of paying for the clubs to relocate for a week, and compensating the home club for losing revenue. But the NFL sees this as a short-term investment and envisages matches in Britain ultimately helping to make all 32 clubs richer through more lucrative sponsorship, merchandise sales and commercial rights.Perhaps the most important part of the NFLs approach to growing the game in England is that it is about more than just monetising Americans who have settled across the pond. It is about developing new fans too.For the last two years, the NFL has organised a fans day in Regents Street, central London, using everything from inflatable tackling dummies, cheerleaders and American food and drink to show off the sport to new fans. About half a million people showed up. Most stumbled across the event rather than sought it out, yet in many ways that is the point. It was designed to increase awareness of the NFL among those who knew and cared little for it.Here there are many lessons for cricket. The raft of high-profile cricket events in the USA in the last year - the Warne-Tendulkar Legends series, the staging of Caribbean Premier League games and the West Indies-India internationals - seem to have been designed squarely to make cash out of the expat market. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that. But there is a problem when a bunch of 1990s stars slugging it out in a baseball stadium is seen as a substitute for a meaningful development strategy.Getting the NFL shown on free-to-air TV - through the BBC highlights show, which is designed for the non-hardcore fan - is central to the sports approach to Britain. Yet so far there have been no attempts to get cricket on free-to-air TV in the States. Indeed, the India-West Indies T20Is were not shown on any TV channel in the USA at all.Nor has there been a substantive attempt - Courtney Walsh bowling to the mayor of Indianapolis doesnt really count - to make cricket accessible, relevant or even known beyond those who already follow the game. Sadly, this is in keeping with the history of the sport in the USA.A lot of focus does tend to go on to the commercial side of things, an ICC source said of those in charge of US cricket two years ago. And when marquee matches have been held in Malaysia, Singapore and even the United Arab Emirates, organisers there too have rarely used them to win new converts to cricket.The most successful sport yet at entering a new market has been basketball in China. It has done so through an enlightened, long-term approach, focusing both on the grassroots and professional game, and the fortuitous emergence of the superstar Yao Ming. The NFLs approach to Britain and elsewhere is being governed by this template.Yet such sophistication has long been absent in crickets approach to growth, which has been impatient and top-down, seldom recognising the importance of engaging children without a national affinity to the sport or the sheer time such expansionism requires before it yields financial rewards.Cricket in the US hasnt developed the same kind of commercial or managerial sophistication as the NBA in China or the NFL in the UK, says Simon Chadwick, a professor of sports enterprise at the University of Salford in England. Cricket needs pitches, players and points of engagement, not just Warne and Tendulkar. The sport needs to give people in the US reasons to watch and reasons to play.The historic failure of those running US cricket is borne out by the terrible participation rates for junior cricketers. There were only 1230 junior cricketers playing in the US in 2014, according to the ICC census. In contrast, there are now 6000 junior players in American football in Britain, plus another 5000 players at universities. This is not just vindication for a decade of matches in London, but also the work that American football has done in establishing itself at grassroots level.Osi Umenyiora, a former NFL star who was born in England, is paid by the NFL to help identify athletes in their late teens and early 20s who could take their skills to American football. While the ICC has taken some important steps to reform American cricket over the last two years - like suspending USACA, whose leadership stymied US cricket for many years, and creating an ICC Americas team to compete in the Caribbean domestic 50-over tournament - transforming grassroots cricket and ending the exclusivity surrounding the sport will take many years.The most important lesson that cricket can learn from this NFL story is that other sports are coming into crickets traditional territories - from the NFL in Britain, to European club football in India - while making a concerted effort to grow in the most lucrative untapped sports market of them all: China.There comes a point when the growth of sports is a zero-sum game. Someone choosing to watch the NFL in Britain or the Premier League in India is doing so instead of watching cricket at that time. Other sports increased popularity could thereby undermine the commercial value of cricket.This is why crickets approach, in the US and beyond, must be about long-term development more than short-term profits. Expanding the sports global footprint is ultimately an insurance policy, a way of reducing a financial over-dependence on India and guarding against a drop in interest in crickets traditional powerhouses. Frans Nielsen Jersey . I cant pinpoint a date, but I do remember a player from my youth. Brian Downing was with the Chicago White Sox at a time when I listened to every game I possibly could on the radio. That particular season the late great Harry Caray was calling the White Sox games. Darren Helm Red Wings Jersey . Now, correct me if Im wrong but I saw one official distinctly pointing at the net indicating a good goal but after an inconclusive review they overturned the goal. Shouldnt the ruling on the ice (good goal) stand after an inconclusive review? 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BARCELONA, Spain -- Lionel Messi scored a hat trick to inflict a humbling defeat on his former mentor Pep Guardiola on Wednesday, leading Barcelona to an emphatic 4-0 victory over Manchester City in the Champions League.Messi sped through Citys defense and around former Barcelona goalkeeper Claudio Bravo before giving the hosts a 17th-minute lead in a Group C match that both teams finished with 10 men.It only got worse for Bravo, who was sent off in the 53rd minute for using his hands to block a shot outside the area after his poor pass gifted the ball to Luis Suarez.Messi struck again in the 61st and 69th to take his total to 89 goals in Europes top club competition. The Argentina forward is second only to Cristiano Ronaldo, who has scored 98.Barcelona was reduced to 10 men after substitute Jeremy Mathieu was shown a second yellow card in the 73rd, but Neymar still rounded off the win from a pass by Messi. The Brazil striker scored moments after he had missed a penalty that Messi had earned.We know Barcelona. When they arrive (in the area) their strikers punish you, Guardiola said. Its October. We have lost a match. Its not a quarterfinal or semifinal. Now we have to analyze what happened and rest ... We are in the process (of growth).Guardiola lost for the second time upon returning to Camp Nou where he established himself as one of the worlds top managers by leading Barcelona to 14 titles from 2008-12. The former Barcelona player coached Bayern Munich when the German side lost 3-0 here in the Champions League semifinals two years ago, when Messi scored twice.After winning its first 10 matches under Guardiola, City has now gone winless in four games in all competitions.Barcelona extended its unbeaten run at home in European competition to 18 matches.A third win in as many games increased the five-time European champions control of the group. Barcelona has nine points, while second-place City stays on four. Borussia Moenchengladbach is third with three points after beating Celtic 2-0 in Glasgow.Barcelona and City will meet again in Manchester on Nov. 1.Messi scored a hat trick in consecutive games in the Champions League for the first time -- after three goals in a record-setting 7-0 win over Celtic. He missed the 2-1 victory over Moenchengladbach while being sidelined for three weeks with injury.Messi returned fromm that right groin strain on Saturday, scoring as a substitute to help beat Deporitvo La Coruna 4-0.ddddddddddddWe have seen Messis capacity to finish off goals. Its like he is playing in the school yard. He never gets nervous, said Luis Enrique. It doesnt matter how many days he has been inactive, how many games he has missed ... (he is) total football. Those of us who train with him are continually amazed by what he does. Not just for the goals he scores, but how he helps the team.As expected from teams that have both been stylized by Guardiola, City tried to be Barcelonas mirror image from the start.In a controversial move, Guardiola left striker Sergio Aguero on the bench in a bid to strengthen midfield and dispute Barcelonas ball control more, before eventually sending him on in the 79th.Both sides pressed high up the pitch, fought for possession of the ball, and exchanged attractive flowing attacks. But Messi didnt allow the parity to last very long.Andres Iniesta slipped a pass back to Messi, Citys Fernandinho fell while trying to chase, and the forward was left all alone to send Bravo floundering to the turf before steering the ball into the empty net.City finally managed to threaten in the closing stages of the first half, when Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen denied Ilkay Gundogans shot from close range and John Stones headed wide.City, however, soon found itself playing with 10 men after both his hands and feet failed Bravo.Guardiola had urged City to buy Bravo from Barcelona at the start of the season for his allegedly superior passing skills to predecessor Joe Hart.But Bravo gave Suarez the ball with a poor pass outside his box. He compounded that by raising his arms to block his resulting shot, leaving the referee no choice but to send him off.Bravos sending-off was decisive, Luis Enrique said.Messi later made good on the advantage by taking Iniestas pass and firing past Bravos replacement, Willy Caballero, who would later save a penalty from Neymar.Messi then used his left foot for a third time when he tapped in Suarezs pass after the striker pounced on Gundogens errant pass for Stones, who was then unable to prevent Neymar from scoring with a low shot in the 89th. ' ' '