Flame Lances came in handy several times over the weekend -- a

James Sutherland has declared Cricket Australias willingness to part with its multi-million-dollar Indian pot of gold as part of a collective effort to preserve the financial health of the global game.Following the ICC Annual Conference in Edinburgh, Sutherland, the CA chief executive, told ESPNcricinfo that CA was not alone in contemplating major changes to the revenue models based around bilateral (home and away) tours. Chief among these was the possibility of allowing overseas television revenue from India tours to Australia - worth up to $100 million extra to CAs annual balance sheet - to be at least partly diverted into a central rights package bundle to be shared among all members.Such a change would be likely to cost CA money in the short-term, while also changing the dynamics around the boards close relationship with the BCCI, a huge contributor to Australian crickets financial health. However Sutherland was blunt in saying that doing nothing is not an option, and said all boards had to look at the big picture of the international games future, amid worsening financial situations for some countries and the encroachment of domestic Twenty20 leagues on schedules and player priorities.Its different, isnt it, Sutherland said of the proposal to bundle rights for bilateral series. You have to have a belief in the broader context and youve also got to see the big picture. I think together with pretty well all other countries right now we see that bilateral cricket is very much our core business and its really important that it continues to be popular. Ideally if we get to a situation where it has more structure around it, we build context, fans can understand and appreciate it more and we can increase the value and appeal of bilateral cricket.Weve got a very open mind and we believe in a big-picture sense that the benefits will flow, not only to us but to others. It may well be we go backwards before we go forwards, we dont know, but we do believe in the big picture and we do believe individual countries cant operate in isolation of everyone else. Thats something were very conscious of and thats why we support the work the ICC has done so far in reviewing the structure of bilateral cricket and how that might all work. Itll be good for the game, thats our foremost position, and hopefully down the track itll be good for cricket in Australia.Sutherlands words are a world away from CAs actions eight years ago during the Monkeygate furore, when Australias players felt let down when the board elected to avoid the risk of India flying home from the 2007-08 tour rather than backing Andrew Symonds against Harbhajan Singh. However since that time CA has worked assiduously to become more financially independent, raising a second major revenue stream from the Big Bash League and reforming governance to better advance the interests of the game in total.As a member of the ICC working committee exploring the commercial implications of changes to bilateral tours, Sutherland said he was encouraged by how much willingness he saw in Edinburgh to reform the structure of the game. Further talks are set to be held in late August or early September, before a more detailed model is presented to the ICC board in October.I think were getting to a stage of really getting down to a bit of detail now of what it all looks like and how it works, he said. Were hoping to have some meetings next month where we get everyone together to talk a bit more about it. The pleasing thing is theres some genuine momentum here on this and strong alignment and will to make some meaningful decisions. Thats going to be good for the game and hopefully that will happen in the next little while. Everyone is strongly aligned and Im confident were heading in the right direction here.Everyone is firmly of the view that doing nothing around the structure is not an option, and about building more context around international bilateral competition. How it unfolds in regard to exploitation of rights and all of that is something individual members will need to make some decisions on, but it does follow that there are opportunities perhaps to do things better and differently on a collective basis rather than on an individual basis.That sort of stuff is not a necessity, people could opt in or opt out of that opportunity; the bundling of rights may well deliver greater value but it will almost certainly deliver greater flexibility and capacity for member countries to generate media and digital assets that can help make the game more accessible for fans. Thats ultimately what we should all be about.The models being currently discussed will include a certain weighting for the value of each countrys overseas rights, meaning that the likes of India, Australia and England will still get a share somewhat proportionate to their financial contribution. It will also be possible to schedule bilateral tours outside of the proposed league structures, meaning the Ashes or Border-Gavaskar series could still take place if the teams found themselves in different divisions.However the days of countries being financially tied to the BCCI for their very survival, and thus in lockstep when voting on issues at the ICC board table, may soon make way for a more equitable future, in line with governance changes also in the works. The share of the revenues will still be somewhat proportionate one way or the other to the contribution, Sutherland said. If one country, India for example, their contribution to that total pie is greater than someone else theyll get a benefit from that in a proportional sense.But what it should allow is for other countries, who arent as strong or dont have as much power and are effectively selling their rights in competition against other countries, to be a part of a bundle that helps increase the value by virtue of context and structure that they wouldnt have otherwise been able to achieve. Thats all about everyone helping each other to get a better outcome. Air Jordan Outlet Canada . -- Nathan Pancel scored twice as the Sudbury Wolves defeated the North Bay Battalion 4-2 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action. Jordan Shoes Canada Online . The Cleveland Indians, Tampa Bay Rays, and Texas Rangers all won on Sunday meaning the Rangers will host the Rays in a play-in game on Monday. http://www.airjordanoutletcanada.com/ . The Cleveland Indians, Tampa Bay Rays, and Texas Rangers all won on Sunday meaning the Rangers will host the Rays in a play-in game on Monday. Wholesale Authentic Jordans . The injury bothered Bledsoe in the Suns victory over the Clippers on Monday and he sat out the teams home loss to Memphis on Thursday night. Jordans Free Shipping . Haas said he "felt a lot of pain" in his right shoulder when he slammed his racket to the ground in frustration after losing his serve at 3-3 in the first set. Tempo Storms Sealed Deck format once again shone in last weekends Red Bull Team Brawl, the second significant tournament run in this Hearthstone format. And for the second time, the home team won, with Tempo Storm beating Team Liquid 3-1 after squeezing into the finals.What is Sealed Deck format? When developing a Hearthstone version of Sealed Deck, Tempo Storm borrowed from Magic: The Gatherings Sealed Deck format, one of my personal favorite limited formats in card games. Each team opens a series of virtual packs to form a 240-card pool from which they must build three decks with only those cards.What makes this a compelling format is that it highlights the deckbuilding itself, rather than simply piloting a constructed, refined deck, in which most players almost entirely know the majority of a players deck after a few turns, if not before. Forcing players to build decks from a random, limited pool, creates interesting scenarios. And as a team format, with the players miced up, you both get to see direct teamwork, fairly unusual in Hearthstone, and hear the players thoughts.Tempo StormAndrey Reynad Yanyuk Haiyun Eloise Tang Victor VLPS LopezTempo Storm may have won the tournament, but it was a very near thing, as they only advanced to the final match against Team Liquid by virtue of winning a tiebreaker as three of the four teams involved went 1-2 in the Round Robin (Team Liquid went undefeated).The team felt they had enough Mechs to put together a kind of hybrid Mech/Token Shaman that could swarm the board and make beneficial trades, with Thunder Bluff Valiant and Muklas Champion leveraging the tokens. Mech Shaman had been a thing in the past, a straight aggro deck during the days of Goblins vs. Gnomes, but without a Rockbiter Weapon or Whirling Zap-o-Matic, Tempo Storm couldnt go a straight-up with the aggression.Tempo Storms Mage did manage to get a Mad Scientist, useful to exploit the Duplicates, and the two Flamestrikes were key to making the deck work. The only thing really missing was direct burn damage to the face outside of the two Forgotten Torches; there was no Fireball in this deck. But the two Flame Lances came in handy several times over the weekend -- an important thing to remember about Hearthstone is that there are a lot of cards that never see play in Constructed, but only because there are cards that are simply a smidgen better.Druid was the deck Tempo Storm worried the most about, a deck full of large minions and not a lot of ways to catch up.Im going to play the most expensive thing in my hand every single turn until hopefully my opponent dies. The only thing thats missing is any kind of decision-making, commented Reynad before the tournament started on how theyd win with the deck. In the end, they went 3-3 with it.After going 6-7 in games during the Round Robin, Tempo Storm tinkered with all three of their decks (they were allowed to make changes before the finals using the same card pools), making them more aggressive, notably including Bloodlust in Shaman to push the token theme. The Bloodlust proved to be a key card in the final against Team Liquid, as the team didnt get too greedy and used Bloodlust for important minion removal rather than simply for the burst damage to face.Team LiquidJeffrey Trump Shih David Dog Caero Janne Savjz MikkonenTeam Liquids deck all shared in a theme in that their card pool was really suffering for lack of area-of-effect clears, the type that could help the games if they fell behind. So they focused on decks that built a solid curve that could maintain board control with minion-on-minion combat.You could see this issue in Team Liquids Mage deck, which had very high minion quality, but no Flamestrikes, no Fireballs, and only Blizzard for a dependable board clear, albeit one that would likely need some kind of board presence.Team Liquid was also fortunate to draw both Reno Jackson and Lordd Jaraxxus, enabling them to put together a fairly decent Renolock deck with a bit of Dragon synergy.dddddddddddd One problem which didnt hit them early: the lack of board clear in the form of Hellfire, Shadowflame, or Twisting Nether. But if they could survive and get to Jaraxxus, they stood a good chance of winning. In practice, it proved tricky and the deck only was around .500 in the end.During the round robin portion, the general deck plan proved effective, the team going 9-3 over the course of their three preliminary matches. As it turned out, the quick aggressive decks that would punish the decks early were nowhere to be seen. Tempo Storm going for a smaller curve in the finals proved to be their undoing.Team BMKBrian Kibler Rumay Hafu Wang Tom MartellWith one of the best Arena players in Hearthstone in Hafu to go along with two very experienced Magic players, this seemed like an ideal format for this makeshift team.The deck that worked out the best for Team BMK was their Priest deck, the only Priest played in the tournament. While the class has been the whipping boy of Constructed for the last six months or so, they were able to collect many of the elements for a Resurrect Priest, with many of the standard cards for that archetype being available without substitutions. The Priest went 2-1, so wasnt the problem.Nor was the problem the Shaman deck, which went 3-1 with some powerful late game cards, a total of nine minions of five-or-more mana. Without a lot of aggressive decks to play against, they were able to reach that endgame more often than not.What sunk Team BMK was the Mage deck, a deck that get out-tempoed early if they couldnt get a Fallen Hero or Stormchugger, easily their best early-game minions, to stick. And thats a problem as with no Fireball, Frostbolt, or Blizzard, the team fell regularly behind and would lose if they didnt happen to have Flamestrike. Even with two Flamestrikes, this happened quite a bit, leaving the Mage deck to go 1-6, the worst performance of any deck for the day.The other problem turned out to be the secrets. While Tempo Storm had two Duplicates to go along with their Mad Scientist, Team BMK had two of the weakest secrets -- Id argue the absolute weakest -- in Vaporize and Spellbender. After the initial surprise in their first match given that these cards are never played in Constructed, both Tempo Storm and Team Liquid were able to play around the secrets quite easily.Cloud9James Firebat Kostesich Cong Strifecro Shu Andrew TidesofTime BiessenerCloud9s plan for their Druid was simple: put as many giant minions, preferably with taunt, on the board as possible and dare the opponent to have enough removal to get them all. And it worked out more often than not, the deck winning three of its five games. With Dark Arakkoa, Captured Mormungar, two Ironbark Protectors, and two Volcanic Lumberers, their opponents tended to run out of removal.But against a fearless, aggressive opponent with a bit of reach, the deck ran into trouble. Tempo Storm didnt have spell options to remove Cloud9s big minions in their mirror match, so the former used their two Savage Combatants to use their heros health pool as a removal tool. And they did this to the tune of 25 self-damage just to retain board.Like Team Liquid, Cloud9 got a Lord Jaraxxus to use, but the combination of a smaller curve without enough aggression to put the game away early, they had a harder time geting to their Jaraxxus.Cloud9s last deck, yet another grinding-style Mage was a deck we didnt get to see a lot of, only geting two games in. Which is kind of a shame as they were able to work in five Dragons and two Blackwing Technicians, something that caused Team Liquid a great deal of trouble in the very first game of the day. ' ' '