Cricket Australia has opted not to reprise a fully-fledged home and away domestic 50-over competition in 2019-20 as the format continues to feel the squeeze in the summer schedule.

However, CA has placed a priority on playing more 50-over domestic games on international-sized grounds in order to better replicate international conditions. The games have also been spread over three months instead of one and the number of increased to seven matches per team plus one final.

CA released the 2019-20 men's domestic fixtures on Tuesday following on from the BBL fixture announcement last week which saw a shorter regular season and new-look finals.

The Sheffield Shield remains intact but the Marsh Cup, previously the JLT Cup, has been reshaped. Six states will play seven matches each, with each state playing each other once and two teams twice. The tournament will start on September 21 and the last three games will be interspersed between the first four Sheffield Shield games with the top two sides meeting in the final on November 26.

CA's head of cricket operations Peter Roach told ESPNcricinfo that after a long process, which included feedback from the states, players and CA's high performance unit, they are pleased with the changes.

"We're playing on bigger grounds. We've got nine of those games on international venues. Last year we only had three," Roach said. "And we're able to add one game per team as well. We think we've achieved what we wanted to achieve within the confines of our season."

Australia's domestic 50-over competition has been a source of much consternation over the last decade as it has been squeezed to the margins of a busy summer calendar. It follows a trend globally of cricket boards having trouble finding room for 50-over domestic cricket. England, having just secured their first men's 50-over World Cup, will significantly reduce their domestic 50-over competition to make room for introduction of The Hundred, a new 100-ball format from the 2020 season.

The competition has gone through many experimental phases and in recent seasons has been played as a pre-season tournament, predominantly on smaller club grounds during September and early-October. Last season, all six sides played each other once with all six qualifying for the finals with Victoria the eventual winners from fourth spot.

The inequitable nature of the fixture has not been redressed given that teams will only play some opposition once and others twice, but not home and away. Western Australia, for example, are set to face a New South Wales team that may have all Australian players available twice in three days at Drummoyne Oval.

Roach said this was the unavoidable cost of both the travel burden on the domestic teams throughout the summer and not having access to some of the international grounds in September and early October.

"The teams that we selected to play each other twice was more around how do we make it easier for the teams to manage their travel requirements," Roach said. "There's clearly a cost benefit to that as well for those teams. But more importantly, these teams travel a lot, especially during the BBL period, so how can we make it easier for them so they're better prepared to play at their best. In an ideal world we would try and ensure that teams over a few years would play about the same number of games against each other. We'll work towards that over the coming years if this is the sort of structure that we continue with going forward."

CA gave serious consideration to splitting the one-day competition either side of the Big Bash but opted against that model. Australia will play nine ODI's between January and March, but domestic players looking to push their case for ODI selection will not play 50-over cricket after November 26. Shield cricket remains the number one priority for CA and the states and as a result, 50-over cricket got squeezed from the post BBL period.

"Strong feedback was of the 10 Shield games, we wanted to have six before the BBL and four after," Roach said. "Then why didn't the one-day stuff bump into BBL? The priority was to play Shield cricket right up to the BBL, so it gave our long-form players a chance to impress and stay in form closer to that bank of Test matches prior to Christmas."

The lower number of domestic 50-over games could be viewed as a hindrance to the development of players in that format. Australian players in their early years of domestic cricket had the potential to play 10 or 11 games of 50-over cricket per season prior to the competition being restructured in 2013. This season it will be seven or eight, which though higher than recent years still gives fewer opportunities for players to develop.

Ashton Turner, Australia's most recent batting debutant in ODI cricket, had only played 30 List A matches between 2013 and 2019 prior to his debut in India. Even if Turner had played every possible match for WA in the six years since the old home and away 50-over tournament was abandoned, he would have played 41. As a comparison England's Jason Roy was able to play 60 List A matches between 2008 and his ODI debut in 2015. Mayank Agarwal, who was called up to India's World Cup squad during the tournament but has yet to debut in ODI cricket, has played 75 List A games between 2012 and 2019.

CA is comfortable with the number of domestic one-day games that are played given the schedule burden but has not ruled out changing that in the future if required.

"We've got places in Australia where we can play cricket in what is historically cricket's off season," Roach said. "That has been mooted, but at the moment we believe our best model is not to start earlier than we are at the moment. We're squeezing in as many games as we possibly can to allow for rest and Premier cricket to play a part as well. We would have to extend the season if that's the case but anything is possible."

Le'Veon Bell's season-long holdout wrecked many fantasy football teams last season, when he sat out in a bitter contract dispute with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

On Monday, the star running back took a moment out to tweet an "overdue" apology.

this is loooong overdue!! but I want to take a moment to apologize to all the fantasy owners who picked me last year, I'm sorry I couldn't pull through for y'all...but trust me, this year's about to be wayyyy different, I'm bringing the ?? this year ?? pic.twitter.com/IvANCzwJ6F

— Le'Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) July 29, 2019

Bell was ranked at or near the top in many fantasy player rankings last year, but he sat out the entire season.

The three-time Pro Bowler signed as a free agent with the New York Jets this offseason and said last week that he feels so refreshed, he's willing to stretch his limit this season.

"I'm up for 500 [touches] if it's going to take us to a Super Bowl," Bell said, exaggerating the number to make a point.

Bell, who led the league with 406 touches in 2017, is ranked as the No. 12 fantasy running back in points-per-reception formats by ESPN's Matthew Berry.

ESPN's Rich Cimini contributed to this report.

DAVIE, Fla. -- The Miami Dolphins have fired offensive line coach Pat Flaherty and replaced him with Dave DeGuglielmo.

Flaherty was hired in February shortly after Brian Flores took over as head coach, but the Dolphins' offensive line has struggled throughout the spring and summer.

This move was football-based with nothing to do with an off-the-field incident, a source told ESPN.

Flores has made it clear that there are no "sacred cows" in the organization and players are competing for their jobs every day. It's apparent that refers to coaches, too, after the move to let go of Flaherty.

The fact that the move happened even before the preseason shows that the issues with how Flaherty was guiding the offensive line were significant. The interior of the offensive line, in particular, has been dominated by the defensive line through four days of training camp.

DeGuglielmo, who spent 2018 as the Indianapolis Colts' offensive line coach, was hired as a Dolphins football analyst in May. He's very familiar with Miami. This is his third stint as an assistant coach here (2009-11; 2017 after Chris Foerster resigned).

The move also means another former Patriots assistant in DeGuglielmo (offensive line coach, 2014-15) has a significant role on the Dolphins' coaching staff.

DeGuglielmo, also known as Guge, is recognized for turning the Colts' offensive line into one of the NFL's best last season, most notably thanks to the performances of rookie starters Quenton Nelson and Braden Smith.

The Dolphins are expected to have at least two new starters on their offensive line and need to groom several young players in that room, including third-round pick Michael Deiter.

Anthony Davis already has six All-Star appearances, an NCAA championship and an Olympic gold medal to his name, but the newly minted Los Angeles Lakers forward admits there's still something missing.

"I don't think I have a failure that I've had yet," Davis told ESPN as a guest on That's What She Said with Sarah Spain. "Obviously at the end of my career if I don't win a championship that would be, I would feel that's one of my biggest failures. But right now, I still have a lot to do in this world on and off the court.

"So I don't feel like I've failed in anything. I think I just continue to do it over until I succeed at it."

The former No. 1 pick hasn't come close to an NBA championship yet. His teams made the playoffs just twice in his seven seasons with the New Orleans Pelicans, maxing out with a second-round loss to the Golden State Warriors in five games in 2018.

However, Davis' relocation to L.A. to pair up with LeBron James via a trade last month could help fill the hole in his resume. The Lakers have the second-best odds to finish the 2019-20 season as the NBA champions at 4-1, according to Caesars Sportsbook, trailing only the L.A. Clippers (7-2).

The acknowledgement by the 26-year-old Davis jibes with the urgency felt by Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka. Following six straight seasons failing to make the playoffs -- the longest drought in franchise history -- Pelinka restated the team's title expectations at Davis' introductory news conference.

"For us, anything short of a championship is not success," Pelinka said. "So we have to learn from last season, because we didn't win a championship. And a lot of that went into the construction of the roster this year."

Lakers fans just better hope that the theater-style lighting the team uses for its home games at Staples Center -- where the spotlight is concentrated on the court, leaving the fans in the seats dimmed as if attending a Broadway show -- doesn't affect Davis' performance.

Davis told Spain that he is scared of the dark.

"TV on, bathroom light on, some light has to be on (when he goes to bed)," Davis said. "I wish I wasn't scared of the dark ... I watched too many crazy movies when I was a kid and it messed me up for life."

Houston Astros outfielder Jake Marisnick has lost his appeal of a two-game suspension resulting from a violent home plate collision with Los Angeles Angels catcher Jonathan Lucroy on July 7.

Lucroy, who was carted off after the collision, suffered a concussion and a broken nose on the play that Marisnick later called "a split-second decision at full speed."

Joe Torre, MLB's chief baseball officer, said July 11 that he thoroughly reviewed the play from all angles. While acknowledging he didn't believe Marisnick intended to injure Lucroy, Torre said the actions warranted discipline because they violated MLB rules designed to protect catchers from that type of situation.

Marisnick also was fined by Major League Baseball for the play. He will miss games against the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Since the play, Marisnick has talked with Lucroy and apologized.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

CINCINNATI -- Jordan Lyles is heading back to the Milwaukee Brewers, who are desperate for starting pitching as they try to repeat as NL Central champions.

The Brewers acquired the right-hander from the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday for pitching prospect Cody Ponce, giving them a familiar name in their injury-depleted rotation. Lyles has struggled since the end of May.

"I'm definitely looking forward to a change,'' Lyles said during a conference call. "This last month hasn't gone in my favor. I've pitched poorly. We got off to a really good start, hot start, and kind of faced after some injuries here and there.''

Lyles worked out of the bullpen for Milwaukee last fall, going 1-0 with a 3.31 ERA in 11 appearances for the Brewers while helping the club win the NL Central title. Lyles translated his success with Milwaukee into a one-year contract with the Pirates and earned a spot in the starting rotation out of spring training.

He won five of his first six decisions, and then fell into a deep slump. He had a 9.58 ERA in eight starts since the end of May, leaving him 5-7 overall with a 5.36 ERA.

"It was never for a lack of preparation or a lack of work,'' manager Clint Hurdle said. "There's still enough career in front of this guy to find out whether his niche is as a starter or whether his niche is in the bullpen.

"He gave us everything he had. Some days it was really good, some days it wasn't as good.''

The Brewers were a game behind division co-leaders St. Louis and Chicago on Monday, but their rotation has been decimated in July. Milwaukee All-Star right-hander Brandon Woodruff went on the injured list with a strained left oblique and right-hander Jhoulys Chacin was sidelined by a strained muscle in his side. Left-hander Gio Gonzalez developed a tight shoulder in the seventh inning of his start Friday against the Cubs.

"I think every season takes its own twists and turns, and every season brings up unexpected situations and circumstances,'' general manager David Stearns said. "Certainly, we went into the season with what we thought was a very deep pitching staff with numbers we thought could help us get through the rigors of a major league season."

Lyles was scheduled to start Monday against the Reds in Cincinnati when he was dealt. Alex McRae (0-2, 7.71) was picked to take his place. Hurdle isn't sure who will fill Lyles' spot in the rotation long-term.

Pittsburgh could be involved in more deals as the Wednesday trade deadline approaches. The Pirates had lost eight straight and were 2-14 since the All-Star break, slipping behind the Reds into last place in the NL Central.

Ponce, a second-round pick in the 2015 draft, is 1-3 with one save, 44 strikeouts and a 3.29 ERA in 27 appearances at Double-A Biloxi this season.

WASHINGTON -- Max Scherzer is back on the 10-day injured list, unwelcome news for the Washington Nationals as they push for a wild card berth and try to catch the Atlanta Braves in the NL East.

The Nationals announced Monday that Scherzer was placed on the IL with a minor rhomboid strain. The injury is in the same area as the inflammation under his right shoulder that forced the ace right-hander to the IL for 19 days earlier this month.

Scherzer was dominant in June and won seven consecutive starts as Washington worked its way back into playoff contention following a 19-31 start. He returned from the IL last Thursday and allowed three runs in five innings in a no-decision against the Rockies. The next day, he had an MRI that revealed the injury.

Last week, Nationals manager Dave Martinez said he was relieved the famously intense Scherzer, known as "Mad Max," would be back on the mound, giving him an outlet for his competitive energy. But on Monday, Martinez said Scherzer needs to be cautious about his recovery.

"Right now, we just want him to understand, 'Let's just take our time and get it right so this doesn't continue to be an issue,'" Martinez said.

Martinez said he was the "wrong person to ask" about whether the injuries were related, noting that Scherzer now has a muscle strain instead of inflammation.

The move to the IL is retroactive to July 26, which means Scherzer could pitch as soon as Aug. 5.

"That's not by any means a target date," Martinez said. "We just want him to be 100 percent."

The three-time Cy Young Award winner is 9-5 with a 2.41 ERA.

Washington recalled right-hander Erick Fedde from Double-A Harrisburg to take Scherzer's place on the roster. Fedde was slated to start Tuesday night against the Braves in Scherzer's rotation spot. He is 1-1 with a 3.40 in 13 appearances (eight starts) this season.

The Philadelphia Phillies have acquired left-hander Jason Vargas in a trade Monday with the division rival New York Mets.

The Mets received minor league catcher Austin Bossart in the deal, which could help improve a Phillies starting rotation that has struggled throughout the season.

The Phillies also received cash considerations. Vargas is owed $2,666,667 of his $8 million salary for the remainder of this season, and his contract includes an $8 million club option for 2020 with a $2 million buyout.

Vargas, 36, is 6-5 with a 4.01 ERA in 19 games -- 18 starts -- this season. The 14-year veteran got off to a terrible start but has fared better over the past two months, going 5-3 with a 3.34 ERA over his last 12 starts.

The Phillies (55-50) are 6 1/2 games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves (62-44) in the National League East despite entering Monday with a 4.59 combined ERA for their starting pitchers, the fifth-worst mark in the league.

The move also marks the second substantial trade in as many days for the Mets, who bolstered their pitching depth Sunday by acquiring star right-hander Marcus Stroman from the Toronto Blue Jays.

Vargas made headlines earlier this season when he threatened to fight a reporter during a testy postgame exchange in the clubhouse.

ESPN's Jeff Passan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The 2019 Arizona Diamondbacks had the bad fortune to be born in the same division as the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Diamondbacks have had plenty of good surprises this year, and they have the third-best run differential in the National League. They're also 15 games out of first place, as the Dodgers are on pace to win 104 games. According to FanGraphs' playoff odds, the Diamondbacks haven't had better than a 5% chance to win the NL West at any point this season, and they hit 0.0% on June 4.

But the rest of the National League (and Ketel Marte) have kept Arizona in the middle of a playoff race nevertheless. The Diamondbacks are 3.5 games behind the second wild-card spot, and their chances of claiming a playoff spot are somewhere from 10% to 50%, depending on which baseball stats site you go to. The question that will hang over the trade deadline the next three days -- for the Diamondbacks and at least six other teams directly and for the rest of baseball indirectly -- is how much that wild-card spot is worth.

Last week, when the Diamondbacks were just two games out, Arizona general manager Mike Hazen suggested ... not that much:

Mike Hazen doesn't sound convinced into buying: "The belief that a .500 team is going to win the World Series, get through the wild-card format that we have and win the World Series is, I don't think objectively that's a position we should be staking ourselves to."

— Zach Buchanan (@ZHBuchanan) July 22, 2019

For a rebuttal, we'll turn to the 2017 Minnesota Twins, who earned the second wild-card spot and faced the most difficult postseason gauntlet in major league history:

The Twins lost, immediately. One game -- which was hardly competitive after the fourth inning -- and they were bounced, almost as though they had never won anything at all. But they had won something. You can see it in that video. It's just a matter of figuring out the value of what they won.

This is Major League Baseball's eighth season under this playoff format: All six division winners are guaranteed entry into the division series, and two wild cards in each league play each other in a one-game round to join those six. We can say with near certainty that the Dodgers, New York Yankees, Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves -- all of them in first place, and all strong or prohibitive favorites to win their respective divisions -- will be looking to make trades before Wednesday's trade deadline. Most will gladly trade two, three or four future wins for an extra win right now, knowing that the win right now could tilt a playoff series or the World Series.

But from the beginning of this playoff format, it has been unclear whether teams fighting for the wild-card spots will make the same calculation. A wild-card spot is, undeniably, good and better than missing the playoffs. But how good is it? Would a team so willingly trade a top prospect when (A) the race for a wild-card spot is so crowded, (B) the wild-card spot guarantees only one postseason game, perhaps not even in a team's home ballpark and (C) the team that emerges victorious from that wild-card game is at a disadvantage for the rest of the postseason because it probably had to use its ace (maybe both of its aces!) to win that game?

Eight years in, the question is a little easier to answer. We can see, in at least a foggy and inexact way, which teams make more trades at the deadline. Since 2014, there have been 63 teams with playoff odds of at least 25% on July 31. For example, this year's Tampa Bay Rays have a 3% chance of winning the American League East and a 42% chance of winning a wild-card spot (through Saturday); their total chances of making the playoffs are 45%.

We took those 63 teams from the previous five years and sorted them into four buckets, based on what percentage of their total playoff odds came from their wild-card odds, specifically:

1. The wild card onlies (with wild-card odds that are more than 80% of total playoff odds): 15 teams

2. The wild card leaners (50% to 79%): 16 teams

3. The division leaners (20% to 49%): 17 teams

4. The division favorites (less than 20%): 15 teams

If we were doing this for 2019 teams, the Rays would be in Group 1, and the Yankees would be in Group 4. The Twins would be in Group 3, and the Cleveland Indians in Group 2.

Then we assigned each of the 63 teams a score, from 1 to 4, for how active they were at that year's July trade deadline:

1. Acquired nothing of note

2. Acquired some player but more of a role/depth player (e.g., Adam Warren last year)

3. Acquired solid, not cheap players -- a starting position player, high-leverage reliever or midrotation starter (e.g., Nathan Eovaldi last year)

4. Acquired a superstar, one of the two or three biggest names available (e.g., Manny Machado last year) or a comparable package of solid players

These are subjective ratings, they exclude trades made in June or August, and we didn't factor in whether a player was a pure summer rental or signed for multiple seasons. This is a very rough exercise. But we can now assay each group of teams by competitive outlook to see how active they were, on average, by our Trade Deadline Activity score.

• The wild card onlies averaged a 2.7 score

• The wild card leaners averaged 2.6

• The division leaners averaged 2.9

• The division favorites averaged 3.2

What we see -- again, based on subjective assessments and inexact definitions -- is that division favorites are more likely to empty their farm to get the biggest names at the trade deadline. They make these trades even though, by the playoff odds, they're already nearly certain to be in the postseason. That's the math that GMs have, more or less, settled on: If you're going to trade a great prospect for a rental, you strongly prefer the certainty of knowing you'll be playing in October.

But wild card onlies also are very active -- not quite as active but almost as active. The 2017 Diamondbacks' playoff odds were split 0/87 at the trade deadline, and they went out and got J.D. Martinez. The 2015 Toronto Blue Jays traded for David Price and Troy Tulowitzki, though at the time they seemed to be only wild-card contenders. (As it turned out, they erased a six-game lead and won the division.) Only one of the 15 wild card onlies made no trades at all.

It is undeniable that winning a wild card isn't as likely to lead to a World Series as winning a division. The 2014 San Francisco Giants -- a wild card -- pulled off a World Series title, but the other 27 wild-card teams since 2012 have failed. Half of those 28, of course, lost immediately. Of the 14 that moved on, only six won their division series; of those six that moved on, only two won their league championship series. Division winners play, on average, 8.7 playoff games. Wild-card winners, on the other hand, play 4.7.

But there are more factors to consider. A wild-card contender isn't just playing for the (admittedly unlikely) World Series parade. The team is also playing to avoid the failure of missing the postseason completely -- and to avoid the extra failure of falling out of a pennant race before the season is over. Failing to win a World Series is disappointing, but more or less expected and terrifyingly out of a GM's control; failing to draw crowds in mid-September because you aren't in a pennant race is disappointing and a reflection of a season's worth of failure.

The second wild card was born in an interesting time. From 2006 through 2015, only four teams in the majors won more than 98 games. The median win total for a division champ was 92 games. It was easy, at the time, to see a wild card as "cheap" when the division was such a reasonable goal to chase. It was, perhaps, easy to figure that a team was better off saving its future resources and trying to make a run at the following season's division title.

But in the past three years, six teams have won 100 games, and FanGraphs' playoff odds expect three more to do so this year. The median win total for a division has shot up to 96. Next year's division title looks tough.

For teams such as the Diamondbacks, Rays, Giants and Oakland Athletics, it might be daunting to consider the odds of winning the World Series through a crowded wild-card race and then a wild-card berth. Hazen's Diamondbacks are, according to FanGraphs, only about 1-in-500 to win the World Series, and objectively, that might not be a position they should be staking themselves to.

But as long as superteams rule their divisions, the odds of winning it all any other way are close to impossible. It's a real dilemma, and over the next few days those teams -- and others -- will be trying to figure it out.

British and Irish Lions bosses have started talks with the home unions over the creation of a women's team.

Meetings have been held with the English, Scottish and Welsh rugby unions with another scheduled with the Irish Rugby Union.

The men's team has been touring since 1888 and the growth in the women's game has led to calls for a female tour.

"We can confirm that we've begun initial discussions with the home unions," said a Lions spokesman.

"They have been positive, informative and constructive."

A women's schedule could target USA and Canada where the women's game is stronger than the traditional tour venues of Australia and South Africa.

No timescale has been set, but in June Lions chief executive Ben Calveley said it was a case of "when, not if" a women's Lions tour takes place.

Discussions have covered financial viability, timing and tour destinations.

Lions tours have traditionally been to the southern hemisphere men's rugby strongholds of New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.

New Zealand are ranked number one in the world in the men's and women's games.

But World Rugby's women's rankings have Canada fourth in the world and USA fifth. Australia are ranked seventh and South Africa 11th.

A tour in North America would also aim to boost the image of the game and the Lions brand in a market where men's rugby has struggled to make an impact.

The Lions are among the sport's biggest brands, and arguably its most commercially powerful.

It was estimated in 2017 that each four-year cycle between tours generates a turnover of £39m and more than 35,000 fans travelled to New Zealand for the last tour, with close to half buying packages from the in-house travel operator, Lions Rugby Travel.

Profits are distributed back to the four home unions and ploughed into the development of the game.

A successful women's tour in North America is viewed as a major commercial opportunity.

Pressure for the creations of a women's Lions has increased since the success of the 2017 Women's World Cup and the advent of a women's Barbarians team the same year.

The Barbarians played their first match against international opposition when they faced USA Eagles in April 2019, and followed that with a Test against England at Twickenham on 2 June.

Wales wing Jasmine Joyce played for the Barbarians and said the Lions should follow their example and create a women's team.

England captain Sarah Hunter told BBC Sport that the women's Lions should have a separate identity to the men and not just copy the existing formula.

Timing is another potential discussion point. Men's Lions tours are scheduled every four years, clashing with women's World Cup.

Women's tours would probably have to be scheduled in different years which risks clashing with the men's Rugby World Cup.