araiso; Oliver Graybar, P, Rhode Island; Eric Medina, PK

It doesnt take much to set off a Pakistani fan. The recent movements on the Test-rankings table have provided plenty of fodder for discourse, to say the least. The irony of it is that in trying to discredit others, Pakistanis often fall back upon the same tropes that have been used against them, talking about discrepancies between teams home and away records, and the quality of opposition faced.Yet for those within the dressing room, that equivalence is considered false, particularly the notion that Pakistan playing in the UAE is like any other team playing at home. According to one Pakistani player, you can consider it the same the day a Pakistani team gets the crowd and control over the pitches that other Asian nations do. According to another, you can consider it truly Pakistans home the day another team cant put out their best XI for a home Test because of visa issues. There have even, finally, been some public utterances about the difficulty of being nomads.But if Pakistan really want to prove their point, all they have to do is point towards their home ODI record. Of course thats not exactly likely to happen since many of those complaining were responsible for that record.If you leave out the current series against West Indies, since moving to the Emirates in 2009, Pakistan have played 12 bilateral ODI series there (against nations from among the top nine), winning three. Outside of the Emirates the record reads: won seven, lost ten. The most obvious divergence was under Misbah-ul-Haq, when Pakistan won just two of their seven home series and four of the eight series away from home against teams in the top nine, including historic wins in India and South Africa. While the rest of the world uses home ODIs to induct new players and pad up their records, Pakistanis have struggled to even compete in them.In a way, the recently concluded series against West Indies was a window into an alternative world, where Pakistan are like any other team in the world, stronger at home. Of course, if the ICC rankings did weigh home and away results differently from each other, as they ought to, maybe Pakistan wouldnt be struggling to qualify for the World Cup right now.The reasons for Pakistans record are pretty obvious. Their wins were led by their bowling attack. From the 2011 World Cup through the 2015 one, no team had a better economy rate than Pakistan, and their collective bowling average was in the top tier too. This was due to the efforts of Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez, and to a lesser extent Shahid Afridi. But spin wasnt the only reason for it. In 2013, when Pakistan played more ODIs outside Asia than they did in it, both Junaid Khan and Mohammad Irfan averaged under 23 with the ball. (Note: all these stats are against the top nine ODI nations only.)But now, devoid of pace bowlers of that level (the occasional Wahab Riaz or Mohammad Amir spell aside), bereft of the spin trio, and without Misbah to handle it all, Pakistans bowling has fallen off a cliff. Whatever they have gained on the batting front has failed to compensate for their bowling deficiencies.The ODI game in general has, over the past decade and a bit, gone from treating bowlers as equal citizens to considering them glorified bowling machines. And it is here that Pakistan wont be able to catch up, regardless of whether Babar Azam becomes the most complete batsman Pakistan have had in 20 years or whether Umar Akmal reaches his destiny.The reductionist viewpoint would blame it on individuals or selection matters, because trying to scratch the surface requires too much effort. The most common prescription heard is that Pakistans batting needs to attack relentlessly, like other teams batting line-ups do. This, of course, is followed by a smug look from the deliverer of that insight, as if no one else had thought of it before. In response to this wisdom, all one has to do is point to a simple stat: in the third ODI in England, the one with more broken records than a vintage vinyl shop, each of the English top eight had T20 strike rates in excess of 125, while only two of the Pakistanis (Sharjeel Khan and Sarfraz Ahmed) did by contrast. So even if Pakistan attack relentlessly, will it change much?In the last two years of the Royal London One Day Cup, over 13% of all completed matches had first-innings scores in excess of 325. In the premier 50-overs competition in Australia last season, that number was 13% as well. In Pakistans national one-day competition in 2015-16 it was under 6%.Pakistan are stuck in an era the world has moved on from. Without any scrutiny, thanks to the absence of international cricket at home, cricket in Pakistan has been damaged on a level that is evident only now. And that really is the true cost of Pakistans exile. The ecosystem of cricket - and this includes everything from the sponsors the board attracts to the understanding of the game among the cricket-following fraternity - has stagnated as cricket has been outsourced. (Thats why former commentators take offence to the standard of local broadcasting being compared to the 1980s, saying, It was so much better than this in the 80s.) Nowhere is this more obvious than in the tools the players use.Much has been made in recent months of modern bats, but its a discussion Pakistanis cant even participate in. In a TV show last year Saqlain Mushtaq spoke of how the finances available to Pakistani cricketers do not even suffice for them to have the diet and nutrition that athletes needs, let alone extend to enabling them to buy the equipment they require. Current Pakistani players tell of using bats made in England or India and then realising they have to change their games - because its the first time they can actually time the ball for boundaries, thanks to these bats, rather than having to thrash at everything. One player said he had to learn the art of batting afresh this year just because he finally has bats similar (but not the same, it is pointed out) to those used by players from the richer boards. Long gone are the days when Sachin Tendulkar would ask Wasim Akram for bats from Sialkot.And when asked how many players from outside the national team use such bats, the answer is: never more than a handful. Big bats are just not available to Pakistanis, and even if they were, they would struggle to afford them. And then we wonder where all the big hitters went.There is a living embodiment of the stagnation of Pakistan cricket. Located at one end of the Gaddafi Stadium are the offices of the PCB; at the other end is a stand that has been under construction since 2008. Or to put it another way, since construction on that stand began, Rio de Janeiro bid for the Olympic Games, won the bid, invested close to US$30 billion in infrastructure and stadiums, dealt with the public fallout from that spending, had multiple changes in government, hosted the Games and the Paralympics, and now doesnt know what to do with its white elephants. In all that time, construction on that stand at the Gaddafi Stadium has still not been completed. And this, you have to remember, is in the city and the stadium seen by the rest of Pakistan as the one that is given preferential treatment.The base salary of a player in Pakistans national team is barely a third of what their New Zealand or Sri Lankan counterparts earn, let alone what the Big Three offer. And that base salary in turn is extravagant compared to what Pakistani domestic players earn.Thus the achievements of Pakistan, particularly the Test team, need to be seen in another light. Maybe comparing them to Leicester would be unfair on both parties, but there is some equivalence to be drawn with Diego Simeones Atletico Madrid - another team with far fewer resources and much less talent than their rivals; one that momentarily reached the top before that was taken away from them by those with far deeper pockets.But even Atletico had the Calderon. Even they were no nomads. Ruben Loftus-Cheek Jersey .S. -- Nikolaj Ehlers registered a hat trick for the third straight game and Jonathan Drouin had a goal and five assists as the Halifax Mooseheads hammered the host Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 10-1 on Tuesday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Marcus Rashford England Jersey . Having already announced that the race will start May 9 with three stages in Northern Ireland and Ireland and finish in Trieste on June 1, the rest of the route was unveiled Monday. http://www.englandsoccerpro.com/Jordan-Henderson-England-Jersey/ . -- Ty Montgomery had 290 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns, and fifth-ranked Stanford held on to beat No. John Stones England Jersey . On Mar. 16, coming off a "fight of the year" performance at UFC 154 the previous November, St-Pierre faced Nick Diaz at UFC 158 in what would be his eighth defence of the welterweight title. Using his superior athleticism, St-Pierre cruised to a five round, unanimous decision victory setting up a much-anticipated title defence against number one contender Johny Hendricks. Danny Rose England Jersey . After slipping from the summit during the week, the Gunners overcame struggling Crystal Palace 2-0 on Sunday thanks to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlains second-half brace. DETROIT -- Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez might have hoped that giving David Ortiz a present would keep him from beating them yet again.It didnt work.The Tigers honored David Ortiz with a pregame ceremony Saturday night that included two of his closest friends in baseball. Five innings later, his two-run homer in the fifth inning turned out to be the difference in Bostons 3-2 victory over the slumping Tigers.Hes one of those guys who you never want to let beat you, said Tigers catcher James McCann. Daniel (Norris) just made one mistake.Hours earlier, Tigers general manager Al Avila had joined with Cabrera and Martinez for a tribute to Ortizs career. After all three talked about Ortizs impact in pre-recorded videos, they presented him with a large framed photograph from his appearance in the 2005 All-Star Game in Detroit.That meant a lot to me, because those two guys are brothers to me -- they are family, Ortiz said. To hear what they said about me was great. They will stay with me forever.The Tigers nearly sent the game to extra innings in the early moments of Sunday morning.With two out in the ninth, Justin Upton drove a pitch from Craig Kimbrel to deep center field and started celebrating the game-tying homer, but it hit inches from the top of the fence, 420 feet away.I hit that ball about as good as I can hit it, Upton said. I was obviously shocked, but at the same time you know what park you are playing in. Its a big yard out there.Upton ended up on second, and Casey McGehee struck out to end the game at 12:17 am.We were a couple inches from tying the game, Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. Were just in one of those funks offensively where runs dont come.The start of the game was delayed 80 minutes by storms that moved into the area during the afternoon, and another heavy downpour interrupted the game for about 71 minutes after the fifth inning.That was a long night, but we never lost our focus, Red Sox manager John Farrell said. Luckily, David got a high fastball and put it out. We needed that.Drew Pomeranz (2-2) gave up one run and four hits in five innings. He struck out three, but did not walk a batter. Kimbrel got the last four outs for his 22nd save.McCann and J.D. Martinez homered for the Tigers, who have lost 10 of 13.We cant worry about that -- we have another game tomorrow, Ausmus said before looking at the clock. Well, we actually have another game later today.Norris (1-2) took the loss, giving up three runs and eighht hits in his five innings.dddddddddddd He walked two and struck out four while escaping multiple jams.I thought he looked good, McCann said. We attacked with his fastball and had success, but unfortunately the rain cut his outing short.Boston took the lead in the third, but could have had a much bigger inning. Dustin Pedroia, Xander Bogaerts and Ortiz started it with singles to load the bases, but Mookie Betts hit into a double play.Pedroia scored and Norris walked Hanley Ramirez before retiring Jackie Bradley Jr. to end the inning.McCann then tied the game with a solo homer in the bottom of the inning.Ortiz, though, broke the tie in the fifth with his second homer in two nights. The two-run shot gave him 1,500 RBI with the Red Sox.The Tigers put their first two runners on in the bottom of the fifth, but McCann hit into a double play and Andrew Romine grounded out. Moments later, the second storm hit, resulting in a 71-minute delay.Martinez pulled the Tigers to 3-2 with a long homer to left in the seventh. Matt Barnes walked two batters in the eighth, but Erick Aybar popped out on the first pitch he saw for the second out.That brought Kimbrel in to face Cabrera for the first time in their careers. Cabrera lined out to left field on an 0-1 pitch.I thought that Craig getting out of that on two pitches was huge, Farrell said. That set him up to get able to get through the ninth.TRAINERS ROOMRed Sox: OF Chris Young (hamstring) has played in six rehab games with Triple-A Pawtucket, and is hitting .211 (4-for-19) with two doubles. He has also played three games in left field.Tigers: OF Cameron Maybin (wrist) took batting practice with the team in the indoor cages under the stands. The Tigers hope to have him back in about a week.THANKING BIG PAPIDuring his speech, Avila joked about Detroit also always remembering the damage Ortiz has done -- a reference to his series-changing grand slam in the 2013 ALCS -- while Cabrera, speaking in Spanish, pleaded with him to play one more season.UP NEXTThe teams finish the four-game series Sunday afternoon with Detroit ace Justin Verlander (12-7, 3.44) facing Bostons Henry Owens, who is replacing scheduled starter Eduardo Rodriguez (hamstring). The Red Sox are one of the few teams with a positive record against Verlander, who is 4-5 with a 3.05 ERA in 14 starts against them. ' ' '