Bold, brash and unashamedly modern, Kent keeper-batsman Sam Billings embodies the new way for English cricketers. He speaks about his determination to make an England ODI spot his own, the IPL experience and where cricket goes next. Why limit what you can do? he says.Its four years since Billings announced himself by scoring a run-a-ball half-century in a televised one-day match for Kent against Warwickshire. His dexterity and range of strokes led Michael Atherton to tip him as an international player in the making, the former England skipper even suggesting the selectors should chance their arm and pick him immediately. While his Kent teammates Sam Northeast and Daniel Bell-Drummond had been identified as prodigious talents at an early age, Billings had seemingly come from nowhere.Im a late developer, Billings tells AOC as we sit in the sunshine outside the Lime Tree Café at the pretty St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury. Rob Key said to me the other day when we were playing golf: You were rubbish as a kid! Everyone knew about DBD [Bell-Drummond], everyone knew about Sam Northeast, and I was just this wiry little kid who turned up to practice and asked for a hit at the end of the day. He tells the story of when I went to Antigua on pre-season with the first-team squad. We had a practice game, Charlie Shreck was bowling bumpers at me and I smacked a fifty and all of a sudden Keysy said he realised there was something to work with.Billings had to bide his time though, and when no offer of a professional contract was forthcoming, he decided his best chance was through the MCC University system at Loughborough. He describes it as the best thing hes ever done.Growing up I was definitely a keeper first and a batter second. Id kept for England all the way through the age groups - Jos [Buttler] played as a batter - but I wasnt good enough to get a full county contract when I finished school. During my first year at Loughborough we had a camp for the England under 19s. All the boys were staying in the ECB lodges and I just stayed in my halls. I was one of only a few that didnt have a contract and I felt a bit on the periphery. It was only at Loughborough that I got an opportunity at the top of the order. My [first-class] debut was against Northants at Loughborough and I got a hundred, so Kent then knew I was good enough to play at this level.A year later Billings was established in Kents limited-overs teams and he followed that eye-catching performance in front of the Sky cameras by smashing 143 from 113 deliveries against Derbyshire - the highest one-day score by a Kent batsman at Canterbury. In the time since he has developed a reputation as one of the cleanest and most innovative ball-strikers in the English game and he made his ODI and T20I debuts in 2015. He also took part in the inaugural Pakistan Super League earlier this year, turning out for tournament winners Islamabad United, before representing Delhi Daredevils at the IPL.I just saw it as a huge opportunity, he says of his decision to put himself forward for the IPL auction. Andrew Strauss has encouraged as many of us as possible to go and play in franchise tournaments around the world. He sees it as an opportunity to improve as individuals and in the long run thats going to benefit English cricket as well. Even when youre not playing you learn just as much as when you are. Youve just got to soak it all up because it is a different world out there.I was actually na?ve going into it because I thought it was just cricket, there was training and you got plenty of time in between games. But there was something on every day! If youre not training youre doing photoshoots, youre singing in adverts, youre doing all sorts for the sponsors. I was quite lucky actually. They wanted the big guys faces on adverts and we had Brathwaite, Morris, Zaheer Khan, JP Duminy, Quinton de Kock. They didnt have a clue who I was! They thought I was the physio.Billings had made his peace with the fact that in such a star-studded roster he might not get a game but midway through the tournament he got his opportunity against Kolkata Knight Riders. I was so nervous! The boys were taking the mickey out of me in the team meeting. Im sitting next to the big man, Carlos Brathwaite, and when my names read out all the lads started clapping, and then Carlos looked at me and burst out laughing. I had these massive sweat patches, just from the nerves. I was wearing a grey t-shirt - not a good option! He found it hilarious. It was only because you care so much and youre wanting to show the world what you can do. I think thats how youve got to look at it: its a great opportunity as opposed to shying away from it.The nerves didnt show as Billings scored 54 from 34 balls in a Delhi victory. He followed that with a quick-fire 24 in his next innings and finished the campaign with five matches under his belt. Hopefully if I get retained next year people now know what I can do. Theres not much more I could have done. It was a sensational, surreal experience. It was as much a life experience as a cricketing experience.So should we be trying to replicate that experience in England with our own city-based franchise model? Franchise cricket was fantastic but its a different beast over here, says Billings. Youve got the county system, which is so entrenched. The main thing from a players point of view is that we have to play T20 in a block. Weve had two spells this season where weve played six days out of eight in three different formats. Thats not good for us as players: trying to survive in red-ball cricket and then having to try and whack it out of the park on a Friday evening. As players we dont know whats going on. We just load our cars up and have all the kit there in case its T20 or whatever! But also as a fan, its so hard to track a competition or team, or how a particular players going.Billings isnt afraid to speak his mind on a number of subjects and admits he was bitterly disappointed to miss out on Englands ODI squad for the recent series against Sri Lanka. He was selected for the one-off T20I but feels ready for a run in the 50-over team and the stats bear that out.To be totally honest I was disappointed not to be in the ODI squad, he says. After James Taylor was unfortunately forced to retire due to his health issues and then Ben Stokes was out injured I thought I might get a go in that middle order. But I think its a great strength of English cricket at the moment that weve got so many decent players and Ive just got to keep scoring runs. Ive topped the averages in List A cricket for the last two years, at a strike-rate of 140, average of 86 - as long as I keep doing that then hopefully that spot becomes my own.List A cricket is definitely my strongest format, simply because Ive played so much of it from a young age. Where I bat in T20, its so volatile as well. Its the strike-rate thats the key thing as opposed to the average. For England I just hope that I get a good stint at it. In that Pakistan series [last November] I got a fifty off 23 balls, the quickest fifty from an Englishman in an international T20. If I get a good run at it, Im sure that given a bit of time I can really go on and produce. J-Roy [Jason Roy] has had a good run at it and now hes starting to show how good he is. And Im so happy for him because he is that good. Youre not going to whack it out of the park every day straight away but given time I think you can definitely bed in, for sure.****Its a sign of the times that 40 minutes into our interview, were yet to discuss Billings red-ball cricket. Hes only played 40 first-class matches in his career so far and, remarkably, just two in the last 11 months. Hes batted once in that time.Young cricketers coming through in this country still generally proclaim Test cricket to be the pinnacle, almost as a reflex. But in the case of a player such as Billings, whose career thus far has been so focused on, and defined by, white-ball cricket, can that really still hold true?Theres something special about a Lords Test match. That is the purest form of cricket. But I think were very lucky to have a sport which has three formats that are so different. Theres not one thats more important than the other. Thats quite important I think. If you see it from my perspective, dont get me wrong I would love to play a Test match - putting on that blue Three Lions cap and walking out for a Test match would just be unbelievable - but its just different. I feel so far away from Test cricket because I just havent played enough four-day cricket in the last year. Its frustrating because I would love to play it, but its just finding a balance. Red ball and white ball cricket are two different games nowadays and people have got to realise that. Its just the way it is.Billings talks with real passion about the games future and given the opportunities available to him, its easy to see why. I think the games moving forward quicker than it ever has done, he says. The face of cricket is changing all around the world with different competitions popping up everywhere. Weve just got to keep growing the game.I think that ODI series against New Zealand [last summer] was actually one of the best, not only for the England team but for the whole cricket world because it had two teams just going out there without a care in the world. In the deciding ODI, Morgs [Eoin Morgan] came in against the left-arm spinner and tried to take him down. Thats the way you have to play nowadays, because 300s not good enough. Its that mindset of taking it on, whether its first ball or last ball: have no regrets and go with the flow. See 400 as a realistic option. It sounds ridiculous, but it is. The last 20 overs, you can get 200. Why not? And then youve 30 overs before that. I reckon we will see 500 one day. I should have brought one of my bats down. It is ridiculous. Its actually absurd. They are unbelievable but the game moves forward. Its going to push the standard higher. Batsmen are now paddle-sweeping fast bowlers. Why limit what you can do? Weve got one of the best bowlers in the world here [at Kent] in [Kagiso] Rabada, who for a 21-year-old is just phenomenal with the skills hes got. Hes come up with ways to combat a batsman. You have to. It will have that knock-on effect where the bowlers will catch up again.Gareth Andrew [the Hampshire allrounder] has a brilliant thing where he has the ball in his left hand while running up to bowl and as hes getting into his delivery stride he chucks the ball up with his left hand and catches it with his right. As a batter youre like: Whats he done? Why limit that? Thats great for the game. Gone are the days where you set a field and everyone knows where youre going to bowl. If youve got the field set for a yorker youre going to double bluff and hit the bloke on the head. If he top-edges it for four or six over third-man, then thats the game. Batsmen gamble, and bowlers have got to gamble as well now.****Billings immediate focus is on winning back a place in Englands ODI squad for the forthcoming series against Pakistan and cementing his spot in the T20 side. Hes going the right way about it. Given the plum role of No.4 for the England Lions one-day tri-series, he followed up a 34-ball 68 in a victory over Sri Lanka A with a career-best 175 against Pakistan A - 139 balls, 21 fours, four sixes (one of those a pull over mid-wicket from a left-handed stance). It was a role that Billings had discussed with England Lions batting coach Graham Thorpe during the winter tour of South Africa. Thorpey said they wanted me to bat four because if you have that adaptability where you can bat anywhere in the top six or seven, then as a coach or selector it gives you so much more, especially if you can hopefully be one of the better fielders and offer an option with the gloves as well. Im trying to offer as much as I can to the team in different situations.Its an offer that Englands 50-over team can surely not turn down for much longer. After years of inertia, England have finally woken up to whats possible in white-ball cricket. Billings has the skill and tenacity to help them achieve it.This article first appeared in All Out Cricket magazine. Wholesale Air Jordan 1 . "I dont know that were close," said general manager Alex Anthopoulos. "I just think, right now, the acquisition cost just doesnt work for us right now. I dont know if I can quantify how far off or things like that that they might be but I would say we continue to have dialogue. Cheap Air Jordan 1 For Sale . Datsyuk will miss Tuesdays game against New Jersey and could be sidelined longer, while Cleary will likely miss at least the next three games. Its been an injury-plagued season for Datsyuk, who has suited up for just 39 games. http://www.airjordan1cheap.com/ .Y. -- Paul Byron and Matt Stajan scored as the Calgary Flames started a five-game road trip with a 2-1 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon. Air Jordan 1 Outlet Sale . Jane Virtanen scored two, and Alex Roach and Elliott Peterson rounded out the offence for the Hitmen (40-15-6). Brady Brassart chipped in with three assists. Colton McCarthy scored twice, Brayden Point had a goal and two assists, and Jack Rodewald also scored for the Warriors (15-35-9), who were 2 for 5 on the power play. Discount Air Jordan 1 . Both players have lower body injuries that will keep them out of the lineup until at least January 31, which is the first game they can be activated from IR. Longtime rivals will square off in Chicago on Wednesday, with one squad hoping things change and the other hoping they wont.Sporting Kansas City (8-8-4, 28 points) is riding a five-game unbeaten streak as it travels to Toyota Park to meet the Chicago Fire (3-8-5, 14 points), which is stuck in last place in the Eastern Conference.It might lead one to think that this is a one-sided rivalry, and one would be right. But its Chicago that has dominated the series. Chicago has more regular-season wins against Sporting KC (formerly the Kansas City Wizards) than anybody. The Fire is 25-14-11 all time in the series, including 17-4-2 in Chicago.Sporting Kansas City is hoping that its recent streak will continue. A once-dormant offense has come to life. The club has 10 goals in its last four games -- after scoring just four in the previous seven. They will welcome back forward and leading scorer Dom Dwyer, who returns from a one-game suspension for caution accumulation. He has scored in three of his last four appearances against Chicaggo.ddddddddddddSporting Kansas City is also hopeful that midfielder Graham Zusi is back in the lineup. He played a key role in his teams 3-2 win over the Columbus Crew on July 3, but he pulled a hamstring during pregame warm-ups for a match against New York City FC on Sunday.Despite their position in the standings, the Fire has just one loss in their last seven home matches (3-1-3). They are unbeaten in four straight at Toyota Park. Close losses have been Chicagos undoing so far, as all but two of Chicagos 16 matches have been decided by a goal or less.Forwards Kennedy Igboananike and David Accam have netted four goals each, combining for more than half of Chicagos scoring haul this year (15 goals). Newly acquired Dutch striker Michael de Leeuw made his MLS debut on Saturday and is expected to bolster the Fire attack after scoring more than 100 goals during the last six years in the Netherlands. ' ' '