Professional sport is far richer than it has ever been, and yet all sports seem united by a desire to generate even more cash. The motivation is the same, whether it is in FIFAs wish to expand the World Cup beyond 32 teams, India playing West Indies in a T20I series in Florida, or in the NFL playing three games in October in London.While cricket attempts to take hold in America, so Americas game attempts to grow in England. This year is the tenth consecutive one in which regular season games in American football have been held in London. What began as an idiosyncratic novelty has gradually become an accepted part of the British sporting calendar. The number of games per season in London has risen from one to three and will rise further, to four in 2018. Even as the number of matches has swelled, it has not been able to keep pace with demand.Of the 15 NFL matches that have been played at Wembley Stadium to date, only one has not been a sell-out. Sky Sports now televises more than 100 live games a year, and the average audience has doubled in the past decade. Meanwhile the BBCs highlights show, which launched last year, now receives a total audience of one million. The BBC also shows four live games every year - the three in London and the Super Bowl, the NFLs annual championship game.Games in London are a deliberate loss leader, Alistair Kirkwood, head of NFL Europe, explained earlier this year. The matches make a loss for the NFL because of the costs of paying for the clubs to relocate for a week, and compensating the home club for losing revenue. But the NFL sees this as a short-term investment and envisages matches in Britain ultimately helping to make all 32 clubs richer through more lucrative sponsorship, merchandise sales and commercial rights.Perhaps the most important part of the NFLs approach to growing the game in England is that it is about more than just monetising Americans who have settled across the pond. It is about developing new fans too.For the last two years, the NFL has organised a fans day in Regents Street, central London, using everything from inflatable tackling dummies, cheerleaders and American food and drink to show off the sport to new fans. About half a million people showed up. Most stumbled across the event rather than sought it out, yet in many ways that is the point. It was designed to increase awareness of the NFL among those who knew and cared little for it.Here there are many lessons for cricket. The raft of high-profile cricket events in the USA in the last year - the Warne-Tendulkar Legends series, the staging of Caribbean Premier League games and the West Indies-India internationals - seem to have been designed squarely to make cash out of the expat market. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that. But there is a problem when a bunch of 1990s stars slugging it out in a baseball stadium is seen as a substitute for a meaningful development strategy.Getting the NFL shown on free-to-air TV - through the BBC highlights show, which is designed for the non-hardcore fan - is central to the sports approach to Britain. Yet so far there have been no attempts to get cricket on free-to-air TV in the States. Indeed, the India-West Indies T20Is were not shown on any TV channel in the USA at all.Nor has there been a substantive attempt - Courtney Walsh bowling to the mayor of Indianapolis doesnt really count - to make cricket accessible, relevant or even known beyond those who already follow the game. Sadly, this is in keeping with the history of the sport in the USA.A lot of focus does tend to go on to the commercial side of things, an ICC source said of those in charge of US cricket two years ago. And when marquee matches have been held in Malaysia, Singapore and even the United Arab Emirates, organisers there too have rarely used them to win new converts to cricket.The most successful sport yet at entering a new market has been basketball in China. It has done so through an enlightened, long-term approach, focusing both on the grassroots and professional game, and the fortuitous emergence of the superstar Yao Ming. The NFLs approach to Britain and elsewhere is being governed by this template.Yet such sophistication has long been absent in crickets approach to growth, which has been impatient and top-down, seldom recognising the importance of engaging children without a national affinity to the sport or the sheer time such expansionism requires before it yields financial rewards.Cricket in the US hasnt developed the same kind of commercial or managerial sophistication as the NBA in China or the NFL in the UK, says Simon Chadwick, a professor of sports enterprise at the University of Salford in England. Cricket needs pitches, players and points of engagement, not just Warne and Tendulkar. The sport needs to give people in the US reasons to watch and reasons to play.The historic failure of those running US cricket is borne out by the terrible participation rates for junior cricketers. There were only 1230 junior cricketers playing in the US in 2014, according to the ICC census. In contrast, there are now 6000 junior players in American football in Britain, plus another 5000 players at universities. This is not just vindication for a decade of matches in London, but also the work that American football has done in establishing itself at grassroots level.Osi Umenyiora, a former NFL star who was born in England, is paid by the NFL to help identify athletes in their late teens and early 20s who could take their skills to American football. While the ICC has taken some important steps to reform American cricket over the last two years - like suspending USACA, whose leadership stymied US cricket for many years, and creating an ICC Americas team to compete in the Caribbean domestic 50-over tournament - transforming grassroots cricket and ending the exclusivity surrounding the sport will take many years.The most important lesson that cricket can learn from this NFL story is that other sports are coming into crickets traditional territories - from the NFL in Britain, to European club football in India - while making a concerted effort to grow in the most lucrative untapped sports market of them all: China.There comes a point when the growth of sports is a zero-sum game. Someone choosing to watch the NFL in Britain or the Premier League in India is doing so instead of watching cricket at that time. Other sports increased popularity could thereby undermine the commercial value of cricket.This is why crickets approach, in the US and beyond, must be about long-term development more than short-term profits. Expanding the sports global footprint is ultimately an insurance policy, a way of reducing a financial over-dependence on India and guarding against a drop in interest in crickets traditional powerhouses.Cal Ripken Sr. Jersey . Once again Jordan Cieciwa (@FitCityJordan) and I (@LynchOnSports) go head to head in our picks. Last weekend at UFC Fight Night 32 my #TeamLynch got the best of #TeamJC by a score of 9-6. Let us know which side youre on for UFC 167 use the hashtag #TeamLynch or #TeamJC on Twitter. Mychal Givens Jersey . Inter president Erick Thohir says in a club statement on Wednesday that Vidic is "one of the worlds best defenders and his qualities, international pedigree, and charisma will be an asset. https://www.cheaporioles.com/1578i-rich-dauer-jersey-orioles.html . Despite dominating possession, Schalke needed an own goal from Nicolas Hoefler for the breakthrough a minute before the interval. The Freiburg midfielder misjudged Jefferson Farfans corner and bundled the ball into his own net. Jim Palmer Jersey . Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC failed to make the postseason while Montreal Impact fell at the first hurdle losing heavily to Houston Dynamo in the Eastern Conference Knockout Round. David Hess Jersey . -- Arizona raced out to a big lead and did not back off, hitting the accelerator instead.Sydney FC have continued their sensational unbeaten start to the A-League season as David Carney scored a brace to send Melbourne Victory packing 2-1 in a thrilling, spiteful Big Blue.The Sky Blues rode their luck throughout a tricky first half at Allianz Stadium on Saturday then came from a goal down to stick the knife in and claim their first win against Victory in 10 meetings.The result leaves the Sky Blues with five wins from five games this season and five points clear at the top of the table - though it wasnt always clear-cut.Sydney conceded their first goal of this campaign when Mitch Austin put Victory in front on 41 minutes.It was a deserved goal for the left-winger, who played the role of creator all night and ran Sydney right-back Rhyan Grant ragged.Yet it should have come much earlier in an incredibly lucky first half for the hosts, during which Besart Berisha had a goal disallowed and missed a penalty, while captain Alex Brosque could well have been sent off for his heavy challenge on Leigh Broxham.Sandwiched in between, Marco Rojas missed a sitter with Sydney goalkeeper Danny Vukovic erroneously off his line and an empty net beckoning.Austin, who delivered Rojas the cross, was also provider of a lovely through ball to Berisha in the opening minutes, but the offside flag was raised moments after the Albanian striker chipped into the net.Berisha was then the recipient of wild jeers from 19,143 mostly Sydney fans for his shocking attempt at a penalty.The shot skewed high and left of goal, forcing a wry smile from him and a taunt from Filip Holosko, the man who had fouled him in the box.Despite the catalogue of close calls and chances at both ends, Sydneey had a slight upper hand, with Serbian playmaker Milos Ninkovic applying pressure and Josh Brillante narrowly missing a long-range bullet.ddddddddddddGraham Arnold clearly wasnt happy though and the coach traded barbs with his Victory counterpart Kevin Muscat, who was given a warning by referee Chris Beath as tensions boiled over.Tempers flared on the field too as substitute Matt Simon got rough with James Donachie and Michael Zullo suffered a nasty collision with a pitchside table.Amid the drama, Arnold made the big call of replacing marquee man Holosko with veteran Carney on the hour mark - and it proved a masterstroke.The former Socceroo struck just four minutes into his introduction, appearing to handle Brosques ball in the box before stabbing home with his left foot.Then, on the 78th minute, Grant cut the ball back to Carney for his clinical left boot to prod home again.Muscat said Carneys first goal was a definite handball.We cant do anything about it now, but people say there was a change to the outcome of the game - well, its a goal, Muscat said.But weve got to learn from that as well because they get in behind us from a throw-in, so weve got to take some responsibility.But were just asking, in my opinion, for the referee to see those decisions or those outcomes.Arnold was pleased with his teams fantastic comeback, having implored them at halftime to revert to their possession-based game.We didnt play our way in the first half, Arnold said.We wanted to get more involved in the fight and tried to get in behind them too quick. ' ' '