Last month, the Cricketer magazine published what it termed a power list of English cricket, as decided by its editorial team. In case youre curious and you missed it at the time, ECB chairman Colin Graves topped the list. Managing director Andrew Strauss came in at No. 2. Current players Joe Root and Alastair Cook both appeared in the top ten. Several commentators and cricket correspondents - Michael Vaughan (7), Mike Atherton (11), Jonathan Agnew (15) - also featured.How was such a list decided upon? The Cricketers editor, Simon Hughes, had this to say: We asked, who makes the decisions and drives initiatives and sways opinion? Who sets the agendas? Who persuades broadcasters and sponsors to part with their money? Which players, or ex-players, are the most important? Who really influences the publics view of the game?We took into account status, authority, credibility, reputation, skill and, where appropriate, social media reach.Essentially, then, this was a list of the top 50 movers and shakers in English cricket.Two women made the list. No. 23: Delia Bushell, head of BT Sport. No. 24: Clare Connor, ECB director of womens cricket.Of those in the country considered to have cricketing status, authority, credibility and skill, 48 are men; of those who make the key decisions in our sport, 96% are male. There were no current female players, no female coaches, umpires, journalists or editors on the list.None.Note: this was not a power list of English mens cricket. This was a power list of English cricket, full stop. One sport: mens and womens. One game, so says the ECB. One power list.One game, in fact, since 1998, when the ECB took over responsibility for womens cricket, and the Womens Cricket Association (WCA) - the governing body of the sport since 1926 - dissolved itself. Since that time, money and resources have gradually poured into the womens game as the ECB has come to appreciate its responsibilities to half the population. Women have access to top-quality pitches; the womens game gets TV coverage; there are even professional contracts for a lucky few.Women also now play a sport that is run by men.That was the trade-off, you see. Had I put together a power list of English womens cricket in 1996, it would have consisted entirely of women. Right up until the merger, the WCA remained an organisation in which no man was permitted to take office or become a full member. The WCAs executive director was a woman - Barbara Daniels; the WCAs chairman was a woman - Sharon Bayton; the WCA executive committee was made up exclusively of women.Those working as selectors, scorers and coaches were almost all women. In all womens Test matches up until 1996, the WCA insisted upon using female umpires. Any regular media coverage womens cricket received was generally due to dedicated female writers who had also played the sport - Rachael Heyhoe-Flint writing for the Telegraph in the 1960s and 70s; Sarah Potter and Carol Salmon penning reports for the Times, the Cricketer and Wisden in the 1980s.Then the merger happened and these women disappeared. Initially Bayton and Daniels had asked for a womens cricket seat on the ECB board; this never came into existence. A Womens Cricket Advisory Group was set up, but without access to the main ECB board, or indeed to the audit committee or the cricket committee (which were all staffed entirely by men), it lacked any kind of real influence. At a local level, the new county boards - led by men - were advised of their responsibilities with regard to womens cricket. Some embraced this. Many others did not. Other responsibilities formerly dominated by women, such as coaching and umpiring, were also taken over by the ECB. In practice, because this often required female officials to requalify, this meant that such duties became almost entirely undertaken by men. Thus former England cricketer Megan Lear was replaced as England coach by an ECB nominee, Paul Farbrace, and the umpires in womens internationals became male first-class ECB appointees. Umpiring and coaching within the womens game are still today overwhelmingly male activities. And the ECB management board, while it has had a womens game representative since 2010, is currently constituted of 11 men and two women.Make no mistake - the so-called merger (in reality more of a takeover) was always viewed as a trade-off. It is hard to disregard the enormous strides womens cricket has made in recent years thanks to proper funding by the ECB. This was the very reason for the merger in the first place: as a volunteer body, it was increasingly difficult for the WCA to both fund a game that was growing at the grassroots, and to continue to fund international tours.Yet the WCA had always highly prized its autonomy. In 1950, the executive committee agreed that of the fundamental principles on which the WCA was founded, one of the most important was that women should run every aspect of it. It was hard to contemplate sacrificing this.Thus during WCA discussions in 1996 and 1997, the fear was ever-present that were a merger to go ahead, the individuality, identity and most importantly its own control over the womens game would be lost, subsumed into the behemoth that was the mens game. It was eventually agreed that the benefits of a merger outweighed these fears. But have such fears really proved so unfounded?There are some who will be asking: does it matter? Should we care that womens cricket is now run by men? Think about it this way: if you are Colin Graves or Andrew Strauss, and you have spent your whole life playing mens cricket, deciding things within that context, then that is what you know. If you are a journalist and you have spent your entire broadcasting career commentating on the mens game, and suddenly you are given a womens match to cover, you are unlikely to be able to provide the same level of insight. Frankly, in both instances, it is fairly clear that the womens game is always going to be an afterthought. At an ECB level, the problem is not so much that decisions are being taken by men, but that they are often being made with exclusively mens cricket in mind.Womens cricket was always the priority of the WCA. Who prioritises it now?The really sad thing about the power list is that I dont really disagree with those who compiled it that those listed are the 50 most powerful people within English cricket. But it does highlight a fundamental problem. Of course, there were multitudinous benefits to that WCA-ECB merger, but something has been lost too - and that power list of English cricket shows just how much. . It was the second consecutive win for the Pacers (2-5), who lost their first five preseason games. Jeff Teague led the Hawks (1-5) with 17 points and eight assists and Al Horford had 12 points and seven rebounds. Mike Scott scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half. . Halifax beat the Saint John Sea Dogs 7-5 on the strength of two goals apiece from Nikolaj Ehlers, Matt Murphy and Brent Andrews. Jonathan Drouin also scored and had three assists while Zachary Fucale made 17 saves for the Mooseheads (16-8-0), who led 6-1 after two periods. . The parade and rally were held to celebrate the Saskatchewan Roughriders 45-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Sunday in the CFLs championship game. . -- Teemu Selanne scored the first goal of his 22nd NHL season, and the Anaheim Ducks extended the best start in franchise history with their fifth straight victory, 3-2 over the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night. . Ferrer, trying to win his fourth title on Mexican soil, will next play South Africas Kevin Anderson, who eliminated American Sam Querrey,7-6 (2), 6-4. Also Wednesday, Gilles Simon (6) of France beat Donald Young of the United States 6-4, 6-3, Ukraines Alexandr Dolgopolov downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 and Croatias Ivo Karlovic defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (4), 6-2. FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Coaches and well-trained players will tell you that every win is worth the same.Theyre wrong.No better examples can be found than the way Seattle, Dallas and Denver won on Sunday. Those victories are the kind that can define a season, catapult you to special things.Most impressive was the Seahawks 31-24 win at Foxborough, a place visitors rarely leave with smiles on their faces. Particularly after settling for three field goals, missing an extra point kick and a dubious 2-point conversion attempt.But in one of the most bone-rattling games imaginable -- look for Earl Thomas hit on Rob Gronkowski for proof -- Seattle re-established its credentials as an opponent to be reckoned with. The Seahawks often come on in the second half of the schedule, and the way they punished the Patriots and also handled the hits they were given in return bodes very well for Pete Carrolls club.It says exactly what our creed is: We fight until we cant fight no more, said safety Kam Chancellor, whose tight coverage on Gronkowski resulted in an incompletion from the Seattle 1 to end New Englands chances. No matter what the circumstances are, we never look back. We keep pushing forward and we keep fighting.Seattle (6-2-1) won on Russell Wilsons arm (348 yards, 124.6 passer rating), Doug Baldwins mitts (three TD catches) and that fierce defense. It won even though Wilson remains almost stationary (for him) in the pocket because of bothersome leg injuries.Its been a tougher year in the sense of obviously, the injuries, and havent faced that (limitation) before, Wilson said. But there was no way I was going to let that stop me. And the mentality was to do whatever I could to play the games, and get ready, And just continue to battle, and continue to have that mulish approach, and continue to stay steadfast.Denver, like Seattle, has had plenty of success recently, albeit with a certain No. 18 at quarterback. It is now 7-3 thanks greatly to its still-staunch defense.And, of course, to a special teams play for the ages.Justin Simmons leaped over the offensive line and blocked a potential go-ahead extra-point kick by Wil Lutz. Will Parks grabbed the loose ball, retturning it 84 yards for a defensive 2-point conversion with 1:28 left.dddddddddddd The defensive 2-point play was only added to the rules prior to the 2015 season, and this was the first time the winning points came on such a play.Ive never had an ending like that, especially on special teams, DeMarcus Ware said, and hes been in the NFL for nearly 12 seasons. It was just big, a big victory. I mean usually a game ends from the defense because of a forced fumble or interception or something like that. But seeing it happen from special teams, you never see that.The effect it could have, particularly with two rookies combining for such a brilliant and rare play, is immeasurable.The significance of an eight-game winning streak powered by two other kids -- quarterback Dak Prescott and running back Ezekiel Elliott -- is that Dallas is thinking big. After its 35-30 comeback sizzler in Pittsburgh, the Cowboys have earned the right to think as big as, well, Big D itself.Asked if hes been around a team where two rookies have had such a quick impact, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones replied, Not two that are so in sync to where theyre feeding off each other and the team feeding off them. I havent seen that.What the world saw at Heinz Field was the kind of determination and resilience that can lead to championships. Every time the more-veteran Steelers delivered a haymaker -- including a touchdown off a fake spike by Ben Roethlisberger -- Dallas responded.Elliott burst through a defense he said parted like the Red Sea and streaked to the end zone for a 32-yard touchdown to win it with 9 seconds remaining, and it might have been the most impressive act the fourth overall draft pick has delivered. And boy has he been delivering all year for a team that hasnt been a true championship contender for decades.If the Broncos, Cowboys or Seahawks find their way to the Super Bowl, they surely can point to Week 10 as a catalyst.---AP Sports Writer Brett Martel contributed.---For more NFL coverage:
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