Scorecards record what happened. Television shows us how. Commentators and analysts try and get to the why. They throw light on field placements, the set-up and the kind of delivery. We are told that the batsman was in perfect position. Or that he was caught off guard. Each delivery carries a story, and most stories a verdict. Was it a good ball or a bad ball? Was the shot on or was the batsman lucky? Every ball bowled is followed by an outcome. And these outcomes invariably beget a range of judgements.Players tend to see these mini-stories differently. For one, they are armed with more information - on the vagaries of the pitch, on atmospheric conditions, on the state of the ball, on the opposition - all of which makes it harder for them to deal in certainties. There are simply too many permutations for them to juggle.Players are also generally reluctant to see each ball as a discrete event. They understand that a good field setting doesnt become a bad one if a nick flies through a gap; that a terrific spell of bowling can produce a raft of runs and no wickets. They grasp the role of randomness. That on some overcast days the ball wont swing, that on some chilly days it will hoop around like never before. Many players are comfortable accepting that some events are beyond explanation.Which is probably why some of the best cricketers prioritise procedures over results. Opening bowlers can be fastidious about picking the right ball from the set the umpires hand them. Many bowlers have favourite ends. Some love to run upwind. Some obsess over shine, relying on their team-mates to take care of the ball. They are precise about fields. They pay attention to rhythm, to what their body tells them, and to repeating the same routine over and over. The canny ones make minor adjustments to confuse the batsmen. At some point, the stars align. The polish on either side of the ball is just right. So is the state of the pitch and the dampness in the air. The feet land in the optimal spots on the crease. The fingers grasp the seam at a perfect angle. The wrist cocks. The ball finds a length… and kisses the bats edge. A fielder is alert. A wicket falls. This is no standalone event, yet it is the wicket that is in the scorecard. And often the detail that endures most in memory.Our cover story this month - a chat between former England swing bowler turned cricket writer Derek Pringle and swing bowler turned leading England wicket-taker, James Anderson - deals less with what happened and more with the how. The focus is not so much on Andersons spells and his record haul of wickets; that is enshrined in the record books. Pringle is more interested in exploring the craft of swing bowling - in wobbly seams, in bowling dry, in maximising a helpful pitch, in adjusting to different conditions, and best of all, on sussing out batsmen. The answers are all Andersons, of course, but it is clear that the questions are from an old hand, one who understands the joys and challenges of swinging the ball and getting it to talk.There are more delights in store in the August issue, which also marks the Cricket Monthlys second anniversary. We return to 2004, when Muttiah Muralitharan went out to prove that his action was indeed legit; we rewind to 1992, when Wasim Akram and Co conquered all before them in England; and we head further back to 1976 to assess the grovel series and its subtext. Elsewhere, two writers debate the possibility of cricket being an Olympic sport. And another tells us of the trap that cricket fans routinely fall into: ignoring randomness and probability at each stage of a game. Uomo Nike Air Max Plus TN Ultra Bianche AQ0242-100 . 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McCarthy, a player who played some games in the second tier for Wigan at the start of this season, would go on to shine inside Evertons midfield, outplaying the man he was brought in to replace, on one of the grandest stages in English football. On Saturday, it was fitting that Manchester Uniteds most recent dagger into the chest was delivered by Frenchman Yohan Cabaye, a wonderfully gifted central midfielder who put on an outstanding effort for Newcastle at Old Trafford. Nike Air Presto Sconti . The Redskins announced Monday that the quarterback who led the team to the Super Bowl championship in the 1987 season will serve as a personnel executive. Sean Wotherspoon Air Max 97 . Its the second straight game Bell has scored in extra time for Kelowna, which beat the Brandon Wheat Kings 6-5 on Friday, and he now has four game-winning goals on the season. SAN ANTONIO -- If only for a couple of minutes, Tony Parker started thinking about life as a member of the Boston Celtics. Sitting inside Madison Square Garden and waiting for his name to be called late in the first round of the 2001 NBA draft, Parker had been handed a Celtics cap, an indication that the team planned to select him with the No. 21 pick that was approaching.But before Bostons selection even went on the clock, former NBA vice president of player development Chrysa Chin, lovingly nicknamed Hat Lady by those who received draft-night caps from her through the years, swooped in to retrieve the lid. The Celtics, she apologized, were going in a different direction.For the better part of the past two decades, fans of the Celtics have lamented how Boston missed out on the opportunity to draft Tim Duncan. The truth is that, once the pingpong balls defied them, the Celtics never truly had a chance to nab Duncan.Now that Duncan has retired, its time to shift the spotlight to another future Spurs Hall of Famer, one whom the Celtics whiffed three times on picking, none more noticeable than with their final pick in the 2001 draft, when Boston instead selected guard Joe Forte.I dont remember what happened [with Parker], but normally what happens when a player doesnt get the hat that hes supposed to is theres been a change in the pick or theres been a trade, or a trade is coming, or there was discussion of a trade and maybe it was unsettled, said Chin, who now serves as the executive vice president of strategy and development for the National Basketball Players Association.It happens quite a bit where, at that time, I would give a player a hat, then youd have to go back and get the hat back. Sometimes families want to keep it to sort of document the history and all of that, but its normally not anything sort of catastrophic. Its sort of an operations issue.Yes, the perils of live TV. Fortunately, in the days before Twitter and cellphone cameras, no one noticed the switcheroo. Still, poor Parker, who sat in the stands despite not being one of the invited draftees, then had to wait until San Antonio finally selected him with the 28th pick. This time, Chin greeted Parker on the arena floor with a Spurs cap and directed him to the stage. During TNTs broadcast, former Celtics coach Rick Pitino detailed why Parker might have been on Bostons radar.The Boston coaching staff, they thought this was the premier point guard in the draft, Pitino said. They loved him. If Forte was not available, they probably would have gone with Tony Parker. This is someone who is very, very highly valued in the league and can really shoot it and play the point position.With three picks, including two in the lottery, the Celtics essentially emerged with 48 games of Joe Johnson at No. 10; Kedrick Brown, a freak junior college athlete who was heavily rumored to be heading to Portland but never did at No. 11; and one forgettable season with Forte.Six All-Star appearances and four NBA titles later, its fair to say things worked out just fine for Parker. But that night has certainly stuck with him.[The Celtics] made my eyes water on draft night, Parker recalled during Grantlands BS Report podcast at All-Star weekend in 2013. Im going to telll you a true story.dddddddddddd True story. True story. The draft, you have that NBA lady, Chrysa -- she comes to me, and it was the 19th pick, she gives me a Celtics cap and says, They are going to pick you. And it was like three minutes left on the clock, and you have five minutes to pick. Then at one minute she comes back and takes the cap, [and says,] Oh no, they changed their mind. They took my cap. I was like, What?And so then they drafted Joe Forte. I was always curious what happened. One day I asked the GM, Chris Wallace, I was like, What happened in the draft, like when you changed your mind? Because the day before, I had practiced for Boston. So I did two workouts -- I did the normal workout, then the day before the draft they did a workout. It was Jim OBrien at the time, the coach, and he was like, We want to draft you, but the Spurs are going to try to make a trade at 20, but if youre available at 21, for sure well take you. The coach and the GM, they wanted me, but the president, big boss, he changed his mind.That big boss, of course, was Red Auerbach, who lit two cigars in celebration of the Forte pick. And while its now well-documented that Forte was the last hand-picked selection for Auerbach, who had watched Forte play in high school in Maryland and likely trumped those who might have preferred Parker. Remember, too, the pick was widely praised at the time.In the aftermath of the draft, Auerbach proclaimed that Forte was an, ideal 2-guard; he can flat-out shoot the ball. Alas, Forte could not flat-out shoot the ball. He made only one field goal in 12 career attempts with Boston. He played a mere 39 minutes in eight games. Thirteen months after drafting Forte, the Celtics traded him to Seattle as part of the package that returned Vin Baker (and somehow that might have been an even worse personnel decision).Forte is otherwise remembered in Boston only for his curious fashion choices. He once reportedly wore a Magic Johnson jersey to a team meeting, seemingly oblivious at the time to the history between the franchises. He atoned by wearing a Bill Russell throwback jersey on the bench during one of the games he was inactive for, though hes better remembered for donning a Scooby-Doo sweater in the days before a more stringent NBA dress code.Forte appeared in just 17 games for Seattle and had an even rougher go there (the Washington Post detailed how he wore a Michael Jordan jersey the night of a Wizards game that ended with him getting in a fight in the team showers). Fortes final NBA career averages: 1.2 points, 0.7 rebounds, 0.7 assists over 5 minutes per game. He briefly latched on with the Asheville Attitude of the NBA D-League, playing close to his college roots in North Carolina, before embarking on a decade-long overseas career that included stops in Greece, Italy, Russia, Iran and Israel.Now in his 16th NBA season, Parker isnt quite the force he once was. But he can still turn back the clock, as he did in Saturdays win over the Nets when he put up 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting over 20 minutes.Thats twice as many points more than Forte ever scored for Boston. ' ' '