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Despite not having played a true home game since the 2009 militant attacks on the Sri Lanka tour bus in Lahore, the Pakistan team proudly tops the ICC Test rankings. Misbah-ul-Haq, captain of this nomadic cricket nation, fittingly said that being No. 1 is not a destination, but part of a journey. His players see their family and friends a few times a year. Considering the homesickness problems of some of Englands best, Pakistans mighty achievement has come under physical, logistical and psychological stress.Cricket and home, or a lack of one, is a concept I was introduced to at the tender age of 17. Saturday afternoon, picked for a league game with my old Leicestershire club, Barkby United, I left my house in the morning, walked off my estate and carried my kitbag across the cornfields to the pretty little village ground Id been playing on since I was 11. We played the match, win or lose I cant remember, and I hiked back across the fields to my house. Or what I thought was my house. My stepfather ensured that I never walked through the door again, and instead of my own bed I slept that night in the park, wearing my whites over the top of my clothes to keep warm.The next morning I sought out the man I usually called upon for advice - my captain. He might not have guessed that his sage words from mid-off on my outswingers would result in me turning up on his doorstep without a home. However - and long before the #CricketFamily hashtag on Twitter - he welcomed me into his house. I stayed for a month before our opening batsman moved out of his flat so I could move in.And the cricket family wasnt just about a roof over my head. At 17, with no guidance, no curfew, no one telling me not to get blind drunk or go clubbing every night of the week, the players became surrogate fathers. I played to impress my team-mates, the cricket collective that watched over not just how I performed on a Saturday afternoon but whether I was eating properly, and whether I was still turning up to college on a Monday morning.All across the country, anywhere in the world, I hope, where cricket is played, a thriving club is a force for good in a society that feels more and more fractured. A healthy team, whether directly or indirectly, imbues values and codes of behaviour, and gives back to the individual in times of need. So perhaps its no surprise that the Refugee Cricket Project (RCP), a specialist programme established in South London by the Refugee Councils Childrens Section in response to the number of teenage boys, particularly those from Afghanistan who were passionate about cricket, exists. Staff working with the children observed how playing cricket boosted their language learning and confidence, and also helped introduce them to British life. The RCP offers year-round cricket coaching, fixtures against a host of opposition, including the MCC and my own team, the Authors XI, as well as placements within local club sides. It also provides advice and support for members on immigration and welfare issues.For boys fleeing a war-torn country, evading threats from political groups, imprisonment, and even forced recruitment into terrorism, cricket has become a safe space. After making long and dangerous journeys through alien cultures, and then arriving in a land where their only friends are their fellow migrants, cricket is a home away from home, and the support of team-mates is akin to the comfort of a family.Refugees at the Jungle Camp in Calais, where some of the players who are now part of the RCP once stayed, put on nightly cricket matches that apparently baffle the local French police. The games are particularly enjoyed by the young Afghan players, reported the Daily Mail, who used to face punishment if caught playing cricket by the Taliban.A love for cricket, it appears, transcends war and conflict. Even Harold Pinter, Nobel prize-winning playwright and keen social cricketer, famously ran back into a burning house during the blitz. There was an air raid. We opened the door and our garden, with this large lilac tree, was alight all along the back wall. We were evacuated straight away. Though not before I took my cricket bat.In the two matches Ive played against the RCP XI, its not only the raw talent that dazzles, the athletic fielding, lightning bowling and outrageous batting, but the empathy and warmth within the squad and its wider organisation. To take part in a competitive game - facing the quickest of quicks Ive seen (or perhaps not seen would be more accurate) - versus such gracious opposition is a rare pleasure. The cultural exchange in playing against a side of young refugees goes both ways, and can only enhance our understanding of the much vilified other in a UK riven by anti-immigrant rhetoric. This is a team bonding not only through a shared experience of trauma and diaspora, but a love of sport. This is cricket family. Luka Doncic Mavericks Jersey . -- Bryant McKinnie came out of his stance and lowered his shoulder into a practice squad player, causing a crisp thud to reverberate in the Miami Dolphins practice bubble. Steve Nash Jersey . -- The St. Johns IceCaps weathered a wild first period with the help of goaltender Jussi Olkinuora, before finding offensive inroads in the second. http://www.mavericksteamofficial.info/jose-juan-barea-mavericks-jersey/ . Here are his mid-season NBA awards. MVP: (KEVIN DURANT-Thunder) - Has been sensational this season and more importantly, the most consistent player in the league. Considering that his team has been without star guard Russell Westbrook and with the free agent departure of sharpshooter Kevin Martin, hes had to carry the majority of the load to not only keep his team afloat but more importantly, at an elite level. Jose Juan Barea Mavericks Jersey . A forerunning sled crashed into the worker Thursday at the Sanki Sliding Center. The unidentified worker broke both legs and was airlifted to a nearby hospital. Dallas Mavericks Jerseys . The 20-year-old Pelicans big man glanced up and smiled widely at the well-wishers -- a fitting end to a day he wont soon forget. Davis responded to his selection earlier in the day as a Western Conference All-Star with 26 points and 10 rebounds, and the New Orleans Pelicans overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 98-91 on Friday night. Two years ago, Joe Mixon punched a female student so hard that he broke four bones in her face. She needed her jaw to be wired shut. The feeling on the left side of her face did not return for months.These are facts. They have never been disputed, by the star Oklahoma running back or the woman he punched, fellow OU student Amelia Molitor. And these facts should have been all we needed, enough to trigger horror and outrage, not only at Mixons actions but also at the way Oklahoma responded.Mixon served a one-year suspension, which was basically just a redshirt season. Molitor went without eating solid food, or laughing, or smiling, as her face healed. He still got to be Joe Mixon, Sooners scholarship athlete. She became another version of herself entirely, temporarily disfigured, broken and, in some cases around campus, blamed.A surveillance video showing Mixon throwing the punch existed, although it took years of wrangling in court for it to be released to the public. But key decision-makers at the school -- namely, coach Bob Stoops, athletic director Joe Castiglione and school President David Boren -- had seen the tape, and they still decided a one-year suspension was sufficient.When the tape came out on Friday, more condemnation followed, as if the words Molitor had spoken meant nothing without the actual video proof that she got punched so hard that her face smashed against a table and broke.But should it really take a video to reinforce the idea that what Mixon did has no place in our society? The video gave us the truth in a way that words cannot: visceral, unvarnished, ugly. Cameras dont lie.Words? Well, they can be twisted. They can be misinterpreted. They can be wrong. In cases involving violence against women, theyre too often treated as just words on the pages of a police report, with skepticism as the first reaction to an accusation.This is just one of the many reasons so many victims fail to report crimes against them. Their words will be parsed, questioned, analyzed and sometimes thrown back at them. These words too often result in name-calling, anger, nastiness, blame and ostracism. That sort of hostility is what Molitor encountered, even though she had facts on her side.Mixon hit Molitor on July 25, 2014, just one day after the NFL suspended Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice two games for punching his then-fiancée and dragging her body out of an elevator. The details were sickening on their own. But the weak suspension only undermined the NFLs stance given the severity of what Rice did, therefore undermining any woman who has been a victim of domestic violence.A video of Rices punch existed and became public that September. Though Rices actions in that elevator had been widely reported,, the video presented a devastating picture that words simply could not.dddddddddddd The Ravens cut Rice and the NFL suspended him indefinitely. Although he has since been reinstated, Rice has not played another down in the NFL because that video was released.The following summer, former Florida State quarterback DeAndre Johnson was suspended indefinitely after he was arrested for allegedly punching a woman at a bar in Tallahassee, Florida. When video surfaced showing Johnson throwing the punch, Florida State kicked him off the team. He has since committed to play for coach Lane Kiffin at Florida Atlantic.Then, earlier this year, video surfaced showing then-incoming Mississippi State freshman Jeffery Simmons beating a woman during a fight. Mississippi State allowed Simmons to join the football team anyway.Mixon, Johnson and Simmons are still enjoying the opportunity to play football on scholarship, sending a message over and over again that implies violence against women will be tolerated.What has made the Mixon case so hard to believe is the way Oklahoma administrators reacted. The video release crystallizes that even more.Stoops, Castiglione and Boren had all the facts in front of them after Mixons arrest. Mixon pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and didnt serve any prison time; hes currently facing a civil suit from Molitor. That should have been enough to warrant a dismissal from the team. Theyd seen the words and the video, a double whammy of evidence that they somehow stomached enough to allow Mixon to keep his place on the team.They have been roundly criticized for that choice, especially over the past 36 hours. But really, they shouldnt have needed a video to tell them that Mixon lost the privilege to represent their institution of higher learning as soon as he punched Molitor. In a statement released Friday, the university said, Mr. Mixon has apologized for his actions, and the university hopes that it is an indication that he has learned from his mistakes. We are an educational institution, where we hope young people will learn from their mistakes and chart a better future course.Yes, Oklahoma is an educational institution, but playing football is not a right, and neither is playing football on scholarship. After rushing for 1,183 yards and scoring 13 touchdowns, Mixon emerged this year as a star and a face of the Oklahoma football program, and of the school itself. Now Mixon and Sooners supporters will head for New Orleans and the Allstate Sugar Bowl, with another top-10 finish there for the taking.So if youre an Oklahoma fan, what exactly are you cheering for? ' ' '