Last month, the Cricketer magazine published what it termed a power list of English cricket, as decided by its editorial team. In case youre curious and you missed it at the time, ECB chairman Colin Graves topped the list. Managing director Andrew Strauss came in at No. 2. Current players Joe Root and Alastair Cook both appeared in the top ten. Several commentators and cricket correspondents - Michael Vaughan (7), Mike Atherton (11), Jonathan Agnew (15) - also featured.How was such a list decided upon? The Cricketers editor, Simon Hughes, had this to say: We asked, who makes the decisions and drives initiatives and sways opinion? Who sets the agendas? Who persuades broadcasters and sponsors to part with their money? Which players, or ex-players, are the most important? Who really influences the publics view of the game?We took into account status, authority, credibility, reputation, skill and, where appropriate, social media reach.Essentially, then, this was a list of the top 50 movers and shakers in English cricket.Two women made the list. No. 23: Delia Bushell, head of BT Sport. No. 24: Clare Connor, ECB director of womens cricket.Of those in the country considered to have cricketing status, authority, credibility and skill, 48 are men; of those who make the key decisions in our sport, 96% are male. There were no current female players, no female coaches, umpires, journalists or editors on the list.None.Note: this was not a power list of English mens cricket. This was a power list of English cricket, full stop. One sport: mens and womens. One game, so says the ECB. One power list.One game, in fact, since 1998, when the ECB took over responsibility for womens cricket, and the Womens Cricket Association (WCA) - the governing body of the sport since 1926 - dissolved itself. Since that time, money and resources have gradually poured into the womens game as the ECB has come to appreciate its responsibilities to half the population. Women have access to top-quality pitches; the womens game gets TV coverage; there are even professional contracts for a lucky few.Women also now play a sport that is run by men.That was the trade-off, you see. Had I put together a power list of English womens cricket in 1996, it would have consisted entirely of women. Right up until the merger, the WCA remained an organisation in which no man was permitted to take office or become a full member. The WCAs executive director was a woman - Barbara Daniels; the WCAs chairman was a woman - Sharon Bayton; the WCA executive committee was made up exclusively of women.Those working as selectors, scorers and coaches were almost all women. In all womens Test matches up until 1996, the WCA insisted upon using female umpires. Any regular media coverage womens cricket received was generally due to dedicated female writers who had also played the sport - Rachael Heyhoe-Flint writing for the Telegraph in the 1960s and 70s; Sarah Potter and Carol Salmon penning reports for the Times, the Cricketer and Wisden in the 1980s.Then the merger happened and these women disappeared. Initially Bayton and Daniels had asked for a womens cricket seat on the ECB board; this never came into existence. A Womens Cricket Advisory Group was set up, but without access to the main ECB board, or indeed to the audit committee or the cricket committee (which were all staffed entirely by men), it lacked any kind of real influence. At a local level, the new county boards - led by men - were advised of their responsibilities with regard to womens cricket. Some embraced this. Many others did not. Other responsibilities formerly dominated by women, such as coaching and umpiring, were also taken over by the ECB. In practice, because this often required female officials to requalify, this meant that such duties became almost entirely undertaken by men. Thus former England cricketer Megan Lear was replaced as England coach by an ECB nominee, Paul Farbrace, and the umpires in womens internationals became male first-class ECB appointees. Umpiring and coaching within the womens game are still today overwhelmingly male activities. And the ECB management board, while it has had a womens game representative since 2010, is currently constituted of 11 men and two women.Make no mistake - the so-called merger (in reality more of a takeover) was always viewed as a trade-off. It is hard to disregard the enormous strides womens cricket has made in recent years thanks to proper funding by the ECB. This was the very reason for the merger in the first place: as a volunteer body, it was increasingly difficult for the WCA to both fund a game that was growing at the grassroots, and to continue to fund international tours.Yet the WCA had always highly prized its autonomy. In 1950, the executive committee agreed that of the fundamental principles on which the WCA was founded, one of the most important was that women should run every aspect of it. It was hard to contemplate sacrificing this.Thus during WCA discussions in 1996 and 1997, the fear was ever-present that were a merger to go ahead, the individuality, identity and most importantly its own control over the womens game would be lost, subsumed into the behemoth that was the mens game. It was eventually agreed that the benefits of a merger outweighed these fears. But have such fears really proved so unfounded?There are some who will be asking: does it matter? Should we care that womens cricket is now run by men? Think about it this way: if you are Colin Graves or Andrew Strauss, and you have spent your whole life playing mens cricket, deciding things within that context, then that is what you know. If you are a journalist and you have spent your entire broadcasting career commentating on the mens game, and suddenly you are given a womens match to cover, you are unlikely to be able to provide the same level of insight. Frankly, in both instances, it is fairly clear that the womens game is always going to be an afterthought. At an ECB level, the problem is not so much that decisions are being taken by men, but that they are often being made with exclusively mens cricket in mind.Womens cricket was always the priority of the WCA. Who prioritises it now?The really sad thing about the power list is that I dont really disagree with those who compiled it that those listed are the 50 most powerful people within English cricket. But it does highlight a fundamental problem. Of course, there were multitudinous benefits to that WCA-ECB merger, but something has been lost too - and that power list of English cricket shows just how much. Cheap Wholesale Air Max Shoes .Y. -- Buffalo Bills coach Doug Marrone has drawn on his Syracuse connections once again by hiring Rob Moore to take over as receivers coach. Air Max Sale Cheap . 4 Villanova with a 96-68 drubbing on Monday. 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The enormous expectations and pressure on the Chicago Cubs might have actually been lessened somewhat by playing the San Francisco Giants?in the Division Series. Not because the Giants arent a worthy opponent; quite the opposite, the Giants are rolling again. They have their own compelling story to tell and this series isnt solely about the Cubs and their bid to win a World Series for the first time in 108 years. The Cubs quest remains the primary theme of this postseason, but the surge by the Giants -- another masterful performance by the mythical Madison Bumgarner, Bruce Bochy, Jeff Samardzija, Hunter Pences hair and, from nowhere, Conor Gillaspies home run -- gives people something else to talk about. That is good for the Cubs.Here are five questions.How good is the Cubs rotation?So good, that one potential Cy Young winner, Kyle Hendricks, will have to wait until the second game to make his start after Jon Lester. So good, Jake Arrieta, who has gone 40-14 the last two years, wont start until Game 3. So good, John Lackey, who was signed by the Cubs in the offseason to make critical postseason starts, will have to wait until Game 4. Still, there is a minor concern with Arrieta, though not from him. In his last start, he allowed seven earned runs, the second-most runs hes allowed in a start as a Cub. In his last six starts, he went 2-3 with 21 earned runs allowed in 35 2/3 innings. Hes healthy and more rested than at this time last year. Maybe he has a great October ahead.What is the status of the Giants rotation?It is in good shape other than Bumgarner having to wait until Game 3 to start. The Giants spent last winter and the 2016 trade deadline making sure they had enough starting pitching after Bumgarner. Johnny Cueto went 18-5 with a 2.79 ERA, making him one of the best No. 2 starters in the game. After a couple of terrific starts he made in the postseason last year for the World Champion Royals, there should be no more talk of whether he is up for the challenge of the biggest games. Samardzija, who pitched for the Cubs for seven years before he was traded to Oakland for Addison Russell, went 12-11 with a 3.81 ERA this year. Left-hander Matt Moore, acquired in late July, pitched some really good games down the stretch. And then theres Bumgarner, who shut out the Mets in the wild-card game, lowering his road ERA in the postseason to 0.50, a record, by far. He has made 13 postseason starts and allowed no runs in six of them, tying Tom Glavine for the most scoreless postseason starts in history (it took Glavine 35 starts to get his six). A pitcher has thrown a shutout in a winner-take-all game 19 times. Only Bumgarner has done it twice. He has pitched 23 innings in winner-take-all games and not allowed a run. If the Giants can win one of two in Chicago, then hand it to Bumgarner in Game 3, this series could get very interestting.ddddddddddddHow much better offensively are the Cubs than last year?Remember, the Cubs got shut down by the great pitching staff of the Mets in the 2015 NLCS. That could happen again -- anything is possible in baseball -- but the Cubs are a significantly better offensive club in 2016. They scored 119 more runs than last year, placing them second in the NL in runs scored to the Rockies. Just as important, they struck out 221 fewer times than last year. First baseman Anthony Rizzos approach to hitting -- he chokes up with two strikes and sometimes just tries to put a ball in play -- hasnt gone unnoticed by other Cubs. The addition of Ben Zobrist, who is a tough out, even with two strikes, has made a difference. In spring training, Maddon said he was dazzled by how much better a two-strike hitter Kris Bryant was compared to last season. It showed. It has shown with all the Cubs.Who will close for the Giants?The Giants led the league in blown saves (30). They lost more games (nine) that they entered the ninth inning with a lead than any team in baseball; five of them came in September. They lost 10 games that they led by three or more runs, most in the major leagues. The bullpen blew eight games in which Bumgarner was in line for a victory, most in the major leagues. The bullpen is the primary reason that the Giants went 30-42 in the second half, the worst second-half record ever by a team that made it to the postseason. Sergio Romo, a former Giants closer who got the final out of the 2012 World Series, is seen as the closer now, but even thats not guaranteed. Bochy will mix and match down there. There is no one better at that than him, but its highly unlikely that he will go back to Santiago Casilla, especially at home, where Casilla occasionally gets booed. The Giants had a tremendously deep and effective bullpen in each of their three championship seasons over the last six seasons. They dont have that same depth this year.How good is the Cubs defense?It is the best in the National League. Russells shift to shortstop in June 2015 was the big move. Russell, and the overall Cubs defense, has gotten better with every game he plays at shortstop. Jason Heyward has brought tremendous defense to right field. Javier Baez has provided great defense at whatever infield position he plays. Bryant can play third base or the outfield. This gives Maddon all sorts of options. Defense was Maddons signature with his Tampa Bay Rays teams. He may be a new-school guy with the way he relates to players and because hes the most interesting man in the world, but he is as old school as it gets when it comes to the actually playing of the game. To him, you simply cant win without a good defense.Prediction:?Cubs in five. 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