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At 11.43am Eastern Caribbean Time on April 11, 2004, Brian Lara swept Gareth Batty towards fine leg, towards the Antigua Recreation Grounds scoreboard, and caused the number next to his name to change from 399 to 400.At 11.43pm, or thereabouts, on July 25, 2016, there are no names on the scoreboard, only vacant rectangular slots next to the batting positions, through which shines the feeble yellow-green light of streetlamps filtered through leaves. The scoreboard looms over the unlit side of the ground. The other side, separated by barricades covered with sponsor logos, is all light and noise and teenage hopes and aspirations.Its Carnival time in Antigua and Barbuda, and tonights main event is Teen Splash, a talent pageant for boys and girls from schools all around the country.The turf that Lara bent to kiss is somewhere under a platform flanked by video screens. On the platform, and near-simultaneously on the screen, contestants have been singing, dancing and performing spoken-word poetry for about two hours.Not long before he got to 400, Lara had danced down the pitch and launched Batty into the Sir Vivian Richards pavilion to go from 374 to 380, going past 375 along the way. The numbers need no explanation. Now, just below the pavilion - flanked to the right by a packed Andy Roberts Stand - is a carousel, its riders rotating and revolving simultaneously around a central pole with rows of unlit bulbs on it, planets orbiting a heatless, lightless sun.The words cricket fan are enough to convince a security guard to allow us into the visitors dressing room (the home one is shut). It should feel like a sacred place, a sanctum sanctorum, but it doesnt. Lockers, a few worse-for-wear chairs; this could be a gymnasium locker room from a sitcom set in a high school. Of all the bits and pieces of this old, great ground, this place exerts the feeblest psycho-geographic pull. This away dressing room contains no ghosts of cricket past: no traces of blood from Anil Kumbles jaw, no teardrops shed by all the bowlers ground into the dust by Lara, pummeled by Viv, defeated by the worlds flattest pitch.The strongest echoes of the past, strangely, though perhaps not, are to be found in the parts of the ground that have fallen into disuse, in the faded lettering of the scoreboard, the rusted, falling-apart staircase at the back of the double-decker stand, its entrance boarded up.This is no longer Antiguas premier cricket venue. The new, modern stadium, clearly a stadium and not a ground, occupies, like so many new, modern stadiums around the world do, a patch of land that is, between matches, nowhere in particular. An in-between place that residents of Seatons or Willikies might drive past on their way into town. A place that isnt far from anywhere - Antigua is a tiny, tiny island - but feels like it; a place that makes you wonder if its worth going all the way to watch a weak, meek West Indies side crumble without complaint against a good but by no means world-beating India. The Antigua Recreation Ground, the ARG, or the Rec, is different. It is packed now mostly by teenagers who make you feel old, and who may or may not be into cricket. It feels like a Test match here might draw healthy crowds as well, though perhaps not be as large or as young. You can imagine fans debating a players merits at the concession stalls behind the double-decker stand, leaving wet circles on the tables with the bases of their Wadadli bottles. You step out of the gates and youre in the heart of town, right next to an arch welcoming you to St Johns.There are food stalls all around you, and lanes pulsing with life lead in all directions. It may not look like this on non-Carnival nights, but unlike at the new stadium, you will never step into desolation two hours after close of play, wondering how youll ever find a cab home, with a spectacular purple sunset unfolding uselessly around you.The festivities continue well past midnight, and as the Rec becomes a speck behind you, the pageant continues on the radio. It is time for the question-answer round, and the contestants, most of them only 16 or 17, are asked their views about everything from global warming to abortion. Some questions are more innocuous, such as the one posed to delegate number 17: Do texting applications like WhatsApp ruin the ability of teens to construct proper sentences?You pass the new stadium just as he begins his answer. The Test match is over. Nothing to see here, gents. The Wadadli inside you, the English Harbour, the hot dogs and the sticks of satay, begin to take effect and you drowse in the passenger seat. 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Anthony Calvillo, through 20 CFL seasons, was frequently invincible and largely stoic in the heat of competition. But underneath the professional exterior he was, and is, compellingly human. Moses Malone Jersey Large .ca! Hi Kerry, Heres an interesting one. I know its common knowledge that all players are responsible for their sticks. We witnessed that when Zack Kassian hit Edmontons Sam Gagner in the face after a missed check. Have you heard of Buccis Overtime Challenge? Well, this is Buccis Hat Trick Challenge. Whats the challenge part? Regularly coming up with three hits about the World Cup of Hockey. Sundays game features Team Europe versus Team?Sweden?(1 p.m. ET, ESPN and on WatchESPN).1. Crosby is all the rage again:?Its easy to forget that just a few years ago we werent sure what was to become of Sidney Crosby. His neck and head injuries were robbing him of seasons in his prime, and his team had made no real postseason impact since 2009. The Penguins were bounced in the second round of the playoffs in 2014 and in the first round in 2015, and Crosby -- who had played with such rage and emotion early in his career -- seemed to lack an edge.I was an intense athlete as a young adult and I always enjoy watching those athletes who compete in a similar manner. Early last season Crosby stopped producing like he always had. One coach firing, two trades and a couple of AHL call-ups later, the Penguins won the Stanley Cup, Crosby won the Conn Smythe and now hes on another career roll. He will soon add a World Cup and a World Cup MVP to his résumé. I miss the days of his demonstrative, rage-filled play. There is not enough of that for me in the NHL. But what a year -- and what a résumé -- he is building.2. Marchand of the Penguins??So?Brad Marchand is a free agent next July 1. And while he has a gem of an on-ice running mate in Boston in?Patrice Bergeron, its been kind of fun playing with Crosby at the World Cup, I imagine. I mean, if anything, it gives Marchand leverage to get eight years from the?Bostton Bruins.dddddddddddd Marchands price keeps going up.3. Waiting for?Gaudreau:?Wednesday night, I sauntered over to the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. It has a cool bar thats dark and warm. I had stayed there while working the NBA playoff series between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors this past spring. As I twirled through the revolving doors, I noticed a young kid in a baseball hat smiling. He looked like he was anywhere between the ages of 16 and 19, and I thought maybe he was an American who watches SportsCenter in America and happened to be in town for the World Cup.As I got closer and was about to say hi to what I assumed was an ESPN viewer, I then realized it was Johnny Gaudreau. The?Calgary Flames?winger (whos 23)?looks young even without a hat, but like many men his age, he looks even younger while wearing one. (Tiger Woods at 30 looked 20 in a hat and 40 without one.) The 5-foot-9 Gaudreau looked like a Backstreet Boy with his hat on.We talked a bit as he prepared to meet some of his North America teammates for dinner. You know, just a kid in Toronto who has just owned the North America-Sweden game and is about to make millions with the Flames. And to think some questioned whether Gaudreau could do what he did in college in the pros. His coaches and teammates at Boston College told me two years ago at the 2014 Frozen Four that he was an otherworldly talent who would thrive in the NHL -- no matter how small and young he looked. ' ' '