and CSA definitely have fallen short at Queens Park Oval and Kingsmead. At a | Forum

PITTSBURGH -- Jake Arrieta, last seasons NL Cy Young Award winner, goes into his final start of the regular season Wednesday night with a 2. Paul Kariya Ducks Jersey .85 ERA that would be the best of any starter on 26 other teams.With the Chicago Cubs -- owners of baseballs best record for the first time since 1945 -- he ranks only third behind Kyle Hendricks (1.99) and Jon Lester (2.28).Against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team Arrieta defeated in last seasons NL wild card game, he has certainly been the Cubs ace -- going 9-2 with a 2.44 ERA in 14 starts. The most memorable, of course, came when he threw eight shutout innings as the Cubs eliminated the Pirates from the postseason, 4-0, on Oct. 7, 2015.The atmosphere inside PNC Park wont be nearly as electric Wednesday night, when Arrieta (18-7) attempts to take a strong finish to the season into the postseason against the Pirates (77-80), who wont reach the playoffs for the first time since 2012.Arrieta is coming off one of his best starts of the season: seven scoreless innings, with 10 strikeouts and five hits allowed, in the Cubs 5-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.I dont need anything to convince me I can sustain this, said Arrieta, who, despite being the NLs best pitcher in 2015, figures to start the postseason behind Lester and Hendricks in the Cubs rotation.That figures to put him on the road for his first postseason start, which probably wouldnt be a bad idea given his 11-2 record and 3.11 ERA in 14 road starts this season.The Pirates dont need any convincing of how good Arrieta is, even if he hasnt been able to sustain the 1.46 ERA he had in his first 12 starts against them. In his last two starts against Pittsburgh, Arrieta is 0-1 while allowing six runs in each game.Pittsburgh starts rookie right-hander Jameson Taillon (4-4), who began the season in the minors but might end it as their top starter. The 24-year-old Taillon has a 3.00 ERA in 10 career starts at PNC Park and has allowed three earned runs or fewer in 14 of his 17 starts to date.In his most recent start, Taillon gave up three runs in five innings but didnt get the decision as the Pirates came back to beat the Washington Nationals 6-5 on Friday. He gave up three runs and four extra-base hits in the second inning, the only inning in which he allowed any scoring.Thats a really good lineup, Taillon said of the NL East champion Nationals.Hell face another really good lineup in the Cubs (101-56), who are doing little more than counting down to October -- they have five games remaining, two in Pittsburgh and three in Cincinnati. Their first 100-win season since 1945 is partly a byproduct of their uncharacteristic domination of the Pirates.The Cubs 101 wins, including seven in their last eight games, are the franchises most since the 1910 team won 104. Of those 101 wins, 14 are against the Pirates.Their record speaks for itself, Pirates shortstop Jordy Mercer said. Its pretty evident theyre one of the top teams in baseball and theyve got a chance to make a run at it. Nick Ritchie Ducks Jersey .Y. -- Knicks coach Mike Woodson said Wednesday that J. Cam Fowler Jersey . 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. http://www.authenticduckspro.com/Korbinian-holzer-ducks-jersey/ . The formidable trio of Canadian receivers -- individually known as Chris Getzlaf, Rob Bagg and Andy Fantuz -- will share the field at Mosaic Stadium one more time on Sunday. Two Test matches are currently underway at two historic venues. The Queens Park Oval is hosting its 60th Test, and Kingsmead its 42nd. These games are the grounds first ever Tests played in August. Both matches have been ravaged by rain and the inability of the grounds to cope with its effects.Only 22 of the scheduled 360 overs have been possible on the first four days of the Port-of-Spain Test between West Indies and India. Allowing for the loss of two overs for an innings break, only 102 of a possible 270 overs have been possible on the first three days of the Durban Test between South Africa and New Zealand.Overnight rain in Durban meant no play was possible on Sunday, the scheduled third day, despite uninterrupted sunshine. In Port-of-Spain, rain ended play 22 overs into day one, and no play has been possible thereafter, even though days two, three and four have been mostly sunny. Both venues have struggled to deal with staging a Test match at an unusual time of year for them.It is the middle of the wet season in the West Indies, but it is becoming increasingly common for cricket to be played in this period here. Traditionally West Indies have played their home Tests in the first five months of the year, but they are increasingly being squeezed out of having a proper home season. January, February and March clash with home seasons in Australia, India, New Zealand and South Africa, and most of the worlds top players now play the IPL in April and May.The IPL has affected the early part of Englands home summer, with touring players often arriving just in time for the Tests, having had no time to transition from T20 to five-day cricket. But it has not affected the July-September period, which is when England play the bulk of their home Tests, including the more prestigious ones.West Indies, on the other hand, have had to move their home Tests into the most unfavourable months of the year. Until 2008, only four of West Indies 48 home series had started after 1 June. Since the start of 2008, eight of their 15 home series have begun in June or later, in the rainy months. In the ongoing series against India, rain has washed out 90 overs or more in three of the four Tests.South Africas home Test series, meanwhile, have almost always begun between November and March. They have played one series that started in April - in 2006 - and one, now, in August. Both times New Zealand have been their opponents, suggesting a scheduling compromise between two southern-hemisphere teams reluctant to travel overseas during their traditional home seasons.Where West Indies would have known fully well they were in for rain when they scheduled the India series in July-August, South Africa may have been caught off guard by the weather. On average, August is the driest month in Durban, and July isnt far behind, but the city withstood severe flooding in late July, and the wet weather has continued into August.The ground certainly hasnt shown itself to be fully prepared for the possibility of rain. Only the pitch and the rest of the square went under covers when it rained in Kingsmead, and the outfield was exposed to the elements. It did not help that the outfield had only just undergone an extensive re-laying process, and was perhaps not in the best shape in terms of drainage.Members of the Queens Park Oval ground staff, meanwhile, reckoned its outfield has been among the quickest-draining in the Caribbean, ever since it was re-laid in the lead-up to the 2007 World Cup. When asked how it was still unfit for play despite all the sunshine it hhad basked in, they said the humidity and lack of breeze could have slowed down the evaporation, but mostly they blamed the scheduling: it had rained almost every day in the week leading up to the Test. Ryan Kesler Jersey. Still, knowing that the ground was due to host a Test in the wettest month of the year, the authorities could have been better prepared. There was no Super Sopper at the ground, and until day three, by which time the damage had already been done, the run-up areas had been left mostly uncovered. On Sunday, members of the Queens Park Cricket Club - which owns the Oval - met to discuss the events of the first four days. They said they would wait until the end of the Test match before releasing their official statement. It should make for interesting reading. At a wider level, the events of Port-of-Spain and Durban point to a disregard, from all the boards concerned, for common-sense scheduling. The WICB should have known August was a particularly bad month to stage a Test in Port-of-Spain. CSA should have known it was probably unwise to stage a Test match at a venue that had only finished re-laying its outfield seven weeks previously. They could possibly have given Durban an extra couple of weeks by scheduling the first Test in Centurion, where the outfield was re-laid in April. They may not have anticipated the rain, but they would probably have known overs would be lost, with bad light a definite possibility, given the earliness of South Africas winter sunsets.Really, the lesson ought to be to schedule Test cricket only within its traditional seasons. Perhaps that is no longer possible, given the unmanaged jumble of three formats and franchise cricket all over the world. In that situation, the least the boards could do would be to equip their grounds to a basic minimum standard.Should that basic minimum standard include a Super Sopper? Its a debate for another day, but as things stand, the ICCs Standard Test Match Playing Conditions do not mention mopping and drying facilities at all. As for covers, Law 11 only mandates that they totally protect the pitch and also the pitch surroundings, a minimum 5 metres either side of the pitch and any worn or soft areas in the outfield, and also for the bowlers run-ups to be covered in inclement weather, in order to keep them dry, to a distance of at least 10 x 10 metres.Fast bowlers run-ups are usually longer than 10m. In an interview with the Guardian in 2002, for instance, Brett Lee said he had shortened his run-up to 21 metres and 30 centimetres. The covers at the Queens Park Oval certainly protected the last 10m of the run-up areas, but in a belated recognition that this may have been inadequate, the ground staff brought in new covers on day three to lengthen the covered portions. Perhaps the ICC could increase the minimum requirement too. Perhaps it could even mandate that the entire ground - as at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata and at certain Sri Lankan venues - be covered, or at least a larger portion than just the square be covered.If the stadium authorities cannot afford this, their national boards probably can, and it should be the boards responsibility to ensure the best possible facilities for Test cricket. The WICB and CSA definitely have fallen short at Queens Park Oval and Kingsmead. At a time of declining interest in Test cricket in both regions, it feels like neither board has done as much as it could to support the format. ' ' '