Andy Bichel Blond and perpetually grinning, as if amused for the opportunity in an era of rare riches, Bichel was the archetypal understudy - a distant third seamer behind Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie in the early years, before being usurped by the even blonder Brett Lee.Bichel carried drinks in as many Tests as he played (19) - it generally required a hamstring twinge here or the omission of a spinner there to tip the balance in his favour.He bowled with the muscular optimism of a born trier - charging in, battering the deck with understated skill, and extracting just enough movement from a nuisance length.He won 13 of his 19 Tests - no great surprise in a team powered by a cabal of greats. But no analysis of Bichels value can be complete without Port Elizabeth, and his grandstanding role in one of the great statement victories of the era. Ahead of their group-stage clash at the 2003 World Cup, England had not beaten Australia in 14 completed ODIs. Bichel took it upon himself to beat them twice more.With the ball he routed them with figures of 7 for 20. Then, when Andrew Caddick reduced Australia to 135 for 8 (chasing 206), he joined Michael Bevan and took command of the tempo of the chase, all but sealing it in the penultimate over with a crushing swing across the line.Within 12 months Bichels international days were over. As Steve Waugh noted in his autobiography, Bichels good-humoured acceptance of his second-tier status was vital in cultivating the mateship that helped keep Australia on top. He and fellow seamer Michael Kasprowicz, Waugh wrote, would take a demotion in the right spirit… They never did whinge or drop their bundle.In the Aussie vernacular, accolades rarely come higher.Tim Bresnan Two performances, a decade apart, offer an alpha-and-omega appraisal of Bresnan - a player whose dour utterances and undemonstrative demeanour mean that being underestimated is part and parcel of his game.The first came at Headingley in July 2006, at the end of a maiden ODI series against Sri Lanka that suggested he was horribly out of his depth: his final contribution was two overs for 29, as England were whitewashed. The second came at Lords in September, in Yorkshires must-win County Championship decider against Middlesex. Nearly three years since the last of Bresnans 23 Tests and yet here he was bossing a first-class contest… with his second string, no less.Always perfectly capable of holding up an end, Bresnans sublime batting (142 not out and 55) offered overdue proof of his incredible talent. After all, for years hed been bowling to such exalted standards as well, but no one seemed to have noticed.And yet, in his pomp, from the spring of 2010 to the summer of 2012, Bresnan played critical roles in Englands World T20 triumph, their first Ashes victory in Australia for 24 years, and their rise in Tests to No. 1.The best came at the zenith of the Andy Flower-Andrew Strauss era. In Melbourne in December 2010, he was subbed into the starting line-up at the expense of Steven Finn, and thumped down heavy ball after heavy ball - you could almost see the pitch rising up to meet its vast gravitational pull - to prise out six wickets; two in the first innings as Australia crumbled to 98 on Boxing Day, and three in the space of four overs on the penultimate evening, when Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey all succumbed to a spell of Flintoff-esque reverse swing.Stuart Clark It should not have been possible. When Glenn McGrath withdrew from Australias tour of South Africa in the spring of 2006, he took with him 542 wickets from 119 Test appearances, stretched across a stellar career.Merely bridging such a gap should have been remarkable, let alone hitting upon a like-for-like replacement. But for 23 Tests Clark was the methadone to McGraths metronome, as Australia weaned themselves off a decade-long addiction to the generations most enduring strike bowler.His maiden Test series was nothing short of a revelation. South Africa had spent most of the previous decade under the yoke of McGrath and Warne, and in the formers absence, there must have been an assumption of weakness in Australias ranks.Not a bit of it. On his Test debut, Clark sauntered onto centre stage with match figures of 9 for 89, and had made it 20 wickets by the time a whitewash was wrapped up. He specialised in quality - 16 of those wickets were top-order batsmen, including Jacques Kallis four times. Clark continued that trait into the following winters Ashes, not only keeping his place as McGrath slotted back in, but outbowling the senior man by 26 wickets to 21, the most by any bowler on either side.His next experience of Ashes cricket wasnt as fulfilling. The new generation of Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus and Mitchell Johnson were given first dibs in the 2009 series, but Clark nevertheless showed what they had been missing when called up for the fourth Test, at Headingley. His first-day figures of 3 for 18 helped rout England for 102 and set up a series-squaring win, but he never played again after defeat at The Oval two weeks later.Patrick Patterson A terrifyingly muscular entity, with a stiff-limbed, stud-slamming action like a windmill being ripped off its axis in a hurricane, Patterson was the instigator of crickets equivalent of the shower scene in Psycho. A television blackout for Englands tour of the Caribbean in 1985-86 meant witnesses of the violence he delivered on his Test debut in Kingston are few - a few thousand baying fans in the stands, and thats about it.Graham Gooch, one of Englands finest players of pace, admitted this was the only match in which he had been truly scared. The fact that Patterson had sprung from nowhere made his impact more chilling. Joel Garner and Michael Holding were winding towards retirement and Curtly Ambrose had yet to make his bow. Nevertheless Jeff Dujon is unequivocal in his assessment that Patterson was the fastest ever to hit his gloves.He came with a mean streak too. Dujon tells a tale from Melbourne: on tour in 1988-89, Dujon followed, at a safe distance, a livid Patterson as he stalked his way to the home dressing room after being given some lip at the crease. He burst through the door, paused to scan the room, then jabbed his finger in a slow and deliberate targeting. You. You. You. And you. I am going to KILL you.Within two sessions, Australia had crumbled to 114 all out, a denouement that echoed Pattersons career: fast, furious and brief - 93 wickets in 28 Tests, with never a series defeat. And the utter anonymity of his post-cricket life merely adds to the legend. No one seems entirely sure what has become of him, lost back to the streets from whence he came. Simon Jones The shooting star of the 2005 Ashes, Jones burned memories for the ages onto the retinas of all who saw him. His 18-Test career spanned a little over three years, but his legacy has been distilled into six extraordinary weeks.From the moment he made his Test debut against India at Lords in 2002, Jones methods brought a sense of expectation. His raw speed caught the eye - in particular its generation, from an ambling run and a ferocious snap of the shoulders - and there was an eagerness to find him a role, just to see what could happen.But on the opening day of the 2002-03 Ashes came the setback that would define the parameters of his international career. He ruptured his knee ligaments and was out of the series before it had even developed its narrative.Jones required little extra motivation to do what he loved best - bowling with speed, fury and a burgeoning level of skill. He was, by his own admission, an all or nothing character - one who accidentally ended up sinking seven pints with Craig White on the eve of his debut - and had it not been Australia in his sights in 2005, he would doubtless have bounded in with equal zest and intent. The fact that it was, and that he located his very, very best for it, merely adds to his legend.If one delivery sums up Jones career, it is the reverse-swinging Exocet to pluck out Michael Clarkes off stump at Old Trafford - That is very good! as Mark Nicholas memorably intoned. By this stage Jones was a rattling cabinet of ibuprofen and cortisone injections. His ankle eventually collapsed after Trent Bridge and his knee - on borrowed time since the Gabba - called in its debts soon afterwards. It was all too brief. All too brilliant. 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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. LONG POND, Pa. -- As NASCAR chief marketing officer Steve Phelps explained the status of the search for a new sponsor to replace Sprint, the Pocono Raceway weather went from cloudy, to drizzle to sun breaking through the clouds all in 15 minutes.Was it a sign of the roller-coaster ride of the search for a Cup Series sponsor?Its all good, Phelps said.There is no sense of panic within Phelps as the sponsorship search continues and in some ways can be as unpredictable as the Pocono weather. When Nextel was announced to replace Winston in 2003, the deal came together quickly and was announced in June. Two years ago, the Xfinity deal to replace Nationwide as the sponsor of NASCARs top national developmental series was announced in September.The announcement of a new Cup sponsor likely will come later. Phelps told ESPN.com on Friday morning that an October announcement is the most likely scenario.It will be a fourth quarter [of the year] announcement, Phelps said The question is when? I dont know.He stressed not to confuse NASCAR not having a concrete feel of an announcement date with the search not going as planned. He said the timeline is tracking as NASCAR expected when Sprint announced in December 2014 that it would depart after the 2016 season.As NASCAR heads into the final five weeks of its regular season and the 15 final weeks under Sprint, the focus will remain on Phelps and his team to land the sports biggest sponsor. The search for a series sponsor in some ways is symbolic of the state and health of the sport. It would have been nice to have seen this wrapped up by now, but that just wouldnt be the reality of the business nor the NASCAR world in 2016.Weve got roughly 12 companies were still in discussions with, Phelps said. Theyre in various stages. I would say theres an opportunity that I believe we could get an offer from -- five or six.The process is going very well. The brands are a mixture of those that are not in the sport right now and some that are in the sport. Its a good list and were trying to determine what is the best for the sport overall.Considering companies are crafting budgets for 2017 over the next few months, it would be expected that they would need to know before October if they will have to spend what NASCAR requires. Nextel (now Sprint) was paying reportedly as much as $75 million a year at the start of its 10-year deal in 2004 in terms of fees to NASCAR as well as promotional commitments.NASCAR doesnt expect a 10-year deal this time around.It probably will be a shorter deal, Phelps said. It is something that bodes from our standpoint and as well a brand standpoint. ... Although we did a 10-year deal with Comcast (for the Xfinity Series); thats a bit of an anomaly in this world today.It will depend on the brand and it will depend on what we believe will be right for the sport.Even when NASCAR signs a deal, the steps prior to the announcement will depend on several factors. NASCAR wont want to tread on the media blitz of the end of the regular season or start of the Chase, possibly feeding speculation of the status of negotiations in order to make sure it does the announcement at the time that works best for NASCAR and its sponsor.Well do it the rightt way that works for whoever our new partner will be, works best for the sport and then with an eye to whats best for Sprint as well, Phelps said.ddddddddddddThe title sponsorship is critical to the sport as it contributes to the season-ending points fund, and the company involved extensively promotes the sport. Those CEOs trying to decide whether to do the deal likely will have reports on the business health of the industry.The three public companies that operate the bulk of NASCAR tracks report that their overall ticket sales since the Daytona 500 are down 10 percent in 2016. While there are some weather factors (and for Speedway Motorsports, its Texas IndyCar race from June being completed in August means that none of its ticket revenue has been accounted for in the latest financials), those are frustrating numbers.Reasons from the public companies range from the economy (especially blue-collar workers financial health) to the retirement (and now temporary un-retirement) of Jeff Gordon to the weaker Canadian dollars having impacted ticket sales.Both New Hampshire and Indianapolis the past two weeks appeared to have significant attendance declines.Television ratings and viewership are down 6 percent for the year. Phelps noted that both Daytona and Atlanta combined to have an 18 percent drop and theorizes that the improved 2016 racing has contributed to the chipping away of that decline.Indianapolis, for all its attendance woes, saw an 11 percent increase in viewership in a race with one pass for the lead under green but featuring the return of Gordon.When discussing those numbers with potential sponsors, NASCAR will say its pleased with its social and digital platforms. It has seen increased year-over-year growth in social media followers and people have watched four times the number of videos on Facebook and Twitter from the NASCAR accounts. NASCAR notes that its apps have been downloaded more than 754,000 times.Companies will take a wider-range look than just the past few weeks numbers when determining whether to sponsor the series, Phelps said.They will look at how have we performed over the past three years, what are the expectation moving forward? Phelps said. Were telling them this story about not just television, but were telling this story about digital and social and this changing consumption pattern for our fan base.Its a story that NASCAR has shared with the industry, especially through the Race Team Alliance of owners and the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers council.Three-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart, who is also a team owner, said the drivers council is one of the best things to happen in the sport, and it has created an unprecedented level of collaboration and consideration and trust of driver views, especially when it comes to competition-related issues. Obviously with a better product should come more fans that would make a series sponsor happy.Were all in this together, Stewart said. If this thing dissolved tomorrow, ... there would be a ton of people out of a job. We all want it to survive. We all want it to thrive and prosper. ' ' '