SHANGHAI - Haotong Li gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about Thursday with an 8-under 64 for a one-shot lead in the WGC-HSBC Champions.

Li practically grew up with this World Golf Championship, posing with Phil Mickelson as a junior 10 years ago and threatening to win the event in 2015 at age 20. He finished his round with an 8-foot par save to lead Victor Perez of France.

Xander Schauffele turned a birdie chance into a three-putt bogey late in his round and had to settle for a 66, joining a group that included Adam Scott and Sungjae Im." type="text">Defending champion Xander Schauffele turned a birdie chance into a three-putt bogey late in his round and had to settle for a 66, joining a group that included Adam Scott and Sungjae Im.

Rory McIlroy opened with a 67." type="text">Rory McIlroy opened with a 67.

Phil Mickelson, in danger of falling out of the top 50 for the first time in 26 years, shot 71.

Haotong Li took the first-round lead with an 8-under 64 at the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai while playing alongside Phil Mickelson, but as it turns out, there's a little more to the story.

While in town to play this very event 10 years ago, Mickelson met Li, then a junior golfer, and posed for this incredible photo that was tweeted out by the PGA Tour on Thursday.

With his home crowd rooting him on, Li beat the guy from that photo by seven shots at Sheshan International Golf Club.

Not only did Li pass Mickelson on the scoreboard Thursday, but he could also pass him in the Official World Golf Rankings by week's end. Currently No. 59, a WGC win would send Li skyrocketing up the rankings while Mickelson could fall out of the top 50 for the first time in 26 years, depending on his finish at the 78-man, no-cut event.

All this to say, life comes at you fast.

Manchester United will host Colchester, the lowest-ranked side in the Carabao Cup quarterfinals, while holders Manchester City travel to Oxford.

Liverpool, whose boss Jurgen Klopp said the club could forfeit the competition if no compromise is made due to a potential clash with the FIFA Club World Cup, drew Aston Villa away.

Finally, there will be an all-Premier League tie between Everton and Leicester. The games will be played the week commencing Dec. 16.

United made it through to the last eight after beating Rochdale on penalties before progressing to overcome Chelsea 2-1 at Stamford Bridge. Liverpool beat MK Dons 2-0 and Arsenal in a penalty shootout after an epic 5-5 draw.

Holders Man City, who have won the competition in four of the past six years, have strolled through the competition so far with a 3-0 victory at Preston and 3-1 defeat of Southampton at home.

Leicester enjoyed a comfortable 4-0 third round victory over Luton, but were made to sweat against Burton in the round of 16 before eventually winning 3-1.

Everton progressed with 2-0 wins over Sheffield Wednesday and Watford while Aston Villa overcame Brighton 3-1 and then local rivals Wolves 2-1 in a tense affair.

Elsewhere, Colchester continued their impressive run as the followed up their penalty shootout win over Tottenham with a 3-1 victory over Crawley, while Oxford overcame Sunderland in a shootout in the round of 16.

Carabao Cup quarterfinal draw

Oxford United vs. Manchester City

Manchester United vs. Colchester

Aston Villa vs. Liverpool

Everton vs. Leicester

Pakistanis 138 for 4 (Fakhar 43, Babar 34, Dwarshuis 2-18) beat CA XI 134 for 6 (McSweeney 30, Lynn 24, Shadab 3-30) by six wickets

It's dangerous to read too much into one warm-up match against modest opposition, but the early signs are that Pakistan's attack will provide a much sterner test for Australia than they have faced from Sri Lanka.

An experienced bowling unit put in a solid display at Bankstown Oval to restrict the Cricket Australia XI to 6 for 134. Mohammad Irfan struck with the first ball of the tour, a searing yorker to remove Ryan Gibson, and Shadab Khan picked up 3 for 30.

Pakistan's openers, new captain Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman, then added 78 for the first wicket as the target was knocked off with ease.

Pakistan left out their two young quicks in Mohammad Musa and Mohammad Hasnain, alongside uncapped legspinner Usman Qadir, in favour of giving all their experienced bowlers a run before the opening T20I in Sydney on Sunday.

Irfan, who has not played a T20I for three-and-a-half years, started in fine style as he left just one stumping standing when Gibson got nowhere near the first ball of the match - much to the delight to a healthy gathering of Pakistan supporters.

After just two runs came from the first two overs Chris Lynn, the CA XI captain, responded with an onslaught as he crunched four fours and a six before being cleaned up by Wahab Riaz as the CA XI finished the powerplay on 2 for 40.

When Imad Wasim trapped Jake Fraser-McGurk lbw, it was 3 for 42 and the innings was threatening to unravel, but the CA XI managed to string together some small partnerships without every breaking loose.

Shadab, who claimed Alex Ross via a top edge, added two further scalps in his final over to suggest that Qadir will be warming the bench at least at the start of the T20I series.

Pakistan's top three all looked in decent touch, taking advantage of some enticing boundaries, with Harris Sohail striking three sixes in his 32 from 22 balls before being bowled with four runs needed as Ben Dwarshuis struck twice in three balls as he also had Asif Ali caught behind.

The CA XI legspinners, Daniel Fallins and Lloyd Pope, managed a wicket apiece with ending with an encouraging 1 for 25 from his four overs having found enough turn to cause some problems.

Queensland 268 (Labuschagne 87, Bryant 64, Stoinis 4-50) beat Western Australia 242 (Marsh 85, Bancroft 72, Neser 3-37) by 26 runs

A spectacular collapse from Western Australia has handed Queensland top spot on the Marsh Cup table.

Chasing 268 for victory on a drop-in surface at Metricon Stadium, WA were cruising at 3 for 218 needing 51 from 40 balls with seven wickets in hand. Shaun Marsh and Cameron Bancroft had shared a partnership of 152 before Marsh holed out in the 39th over for 89. But Marcus Stoinis joined Bancroft and the chase appeared under control before Bancroft also holed out recklessly in the deep for 72 to spark a stunning downslide.

WA lost 7 for 24 in 28 balls. Hilton Cartwright was run out after Stoinis created a mix up with a yes-no call in the 46th over. Nathan Coulter-Nile chipped the next ball to mid-off to put WA in all sorts of trouble. Stoinis had faced 13 dot balls in his innings of 23 off 29. He picked out Usman Khawaja at cover with a drive struck at catchable height off Michael Neser in the 47th and the game was all but gone.

Neser and Mark Steketee took the last three wickets between them in six balls to leave WA bowled out 26 runs short with 11 deliveries left.

Earlier, Marnus Labuschagne continued his outstanding form with 87 from 89 balls to underpin Queensland's total of 268 on a surface that required patience.

He entered behind a brilliant platform set by Max Bryant. The youngster smacked eight fours and a six in his 64 from 51 balls during a 97-run opening stand with Khawaja.

The innings stalled a touch when Bryant fell, with the Bulls losing 3 for 15. Khawaja was caught behind for a scratchy 31 and then a mix-up between Joe Burns and Labuschagne left Burns stranded, and out for 1.

Labuschagne got good support from debutant Bryce Street. Boundaries weren't easy to come by but the pair accumulated well to set the Bulls up for a competitive total. Neser and Ben Cutting were able to capitalise with some excellent late hitting to lift the total to 268 after Labuschagne holed out in the deep with 14 balls remaining in the innings. Stoinis finished with 4 for 50, claiming three wickets in the final over of the innings.

With the result, Queensland leapfrogged WA to reclaim the top spot on the table with three rounds remaining.

HOUSTON -- Everything about the Houston Astros, and the colossus they have become, and the unstoppable force they've been built to be, was on display during the World Series. It just turned out to not be enough.

The Astros didn't choke. There wasn't a blown umpire's call that would be remembered forever. There wasn't a player to be fitted with goat horns. There wasn't a managerial blunder. There wasn't a key injury suffered at just the wrong time. The Astros just lost, barely, to a team that came through a couple of more times than they did.

"This is about the Nationals," Astros manager AJ Hinch said. "This isn't about not performing at home or anything that we didn't do. I come away incredibly impressed by the team that we played and got beat by."

Despite losing 6-2 in Game 7 Wednesday night to the tough Washington Nationals, the Astros remain arguably the best team in baseball. Free agency might chip away at that this winter, but their core should return, injured players will be healthy and more high-level prospects are on the way. Houston's window remains wide open.

Still, despite remaining at the peak of the industry and at the vanguard of a sport that reinvents itself at an accelerating pace with each passing season, for now, the Astros have fallen just shy of greatness. It was all there for them, so close they could almost reach out and grab it. Instead, like other great regular-season teams of the past, Houston found out that dynasties vanish in flashes of moments and because of plays that go wrong by mere millimeters.

The Houston dynasty that still isn't, teetered and tumbled in a seventh inning that longtime fans will play over and over again like a recurring nightmare. Poof. It happened that fast.

"Seasons end really fast," Hinch said. "I don't care if you get all the way to the seventh game of the World Series. It's all of a sudden, boom, it's over. I've got a group of heartbroken men in there that did everything they could to try to bring a World Series championship to this city. And we fell one win shy."

There's an alternate universe in which that inning plays out differently. Anthony Rendon's homer to get Washington on the board came on "not a bad pitch, but I think a bad pitch selection," Houston catcher Robinson Chirinos said. It was a Zack Greinke changeup; maybe they call for something else and Rendon pounds the ball into the turf. It was the only bad pitch Greinke made all night.

"I thought he was going to go complete game, the way he was pitching," Chirinos said. "The pitch count was low, he was hitting his spots. Everything was working for him."

Maybe instead of selecting Will Harris to relief Greinke, Hinch calls for Gerrit Cole, mid-inning, to come on for his first relief appearance since he was a freshman at UCLA in 2009. Cole was down in the bullpen getting loose. We all saw it -- the fans in the park, the Nationals from their dugout, the people watching at home on television. Maybe Cole comes on, pitches like Gerrit Cole, and Hinch rides him to the finish of a 2-1 win.

The run-scoring rallies the Nats piece together in the eighth and ninth never happen. The Rendon homer is it and it's the Nats who are bemoaning how close they came. Cole is swarmed on the mound after a title-clinching strikeout and is handed the MVP trophy on the field a few minutes later.

Or maybe Howie Kendrick simply doesn't poke one off the right-field foul pole against Harris for the two-run homer that gave the Nationals the lead and let all of the air out of Minute Maid Park. By all rights, he should not have.

Harris threw Kendrick a cutter. Chirinos set his target down and away. Harris delivered it right on the money. It just barely caught the corner of the strike zone. Kendrick had seen 28 cutters to that area of the zone this season. He had one hit -- a double off Minnesota's Martin Perez in September. This one, he poked off the foul pole.

"It was a perfect pitch," Chirinos lamented.

Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow has spoken time and again of how his team was built toward sustainability, to "win multiple championships." But winning world championships is hard. It's unlikely even, especially during what might be the most hypercompetitive era in baseball history when you factor in both level of talent and technological advances. And it's hard to win it all because sometimes you do everything right to become the best, and you lose anyway.

"A special group of guys that battled day in and day out, since spring training," Carlos Correa said. "Our goal was to win another championship. We got here, but unfortunately we couldn't finish it."

Think back to the promo MLB shot during spring training, the "Let the kids play" campaign. The scene: A group of baseball's biggest stars are answering standard questions in a boring, cliched manner before Astros third baseman Alex Bregman erupts with, "We're gonna with the championship this year and next year." Most of the players in that promo were playing a character. Christian Yelich is about the last person who would blurt out, "I'm gonna hit 50 home runs this year." (Though he would have done just that if he had not fractured his kneecap.)

But that promo was Bregman in the raw. He's good. He knows he's good. He knows his team is good. And they make sure everybody knows it. The promo was an accurate reflection of who Bregman is. He's an adrenaline hound who got so worked up over his home run in Game 6 that he created a social media storm by carrying his bat all the way to, and past, the first base bag.

At the same time, Bregman cares deeply about his teammates, his family, the game itself. So after Game 6, he apologized for his theatrics, saying, "That's not the way I was raised."

Some time before Game 7 began, Bregman's maternal grandfather died and he posted a tribute to him on his Instagram page. His Game 7 was quiet -- 0-for-3 with a walk -- and he was on deck when Michael Brantley made the last out. He walked slowly back to the dugout when Brantley swung and missed, undoing his batting gloves.

In the clubhouse, Bregman sat on the floor next to Correa's locker, his face a bleary-eyed expression of devastation. Correa sat on the floor with him, consoling him. Or maybe it was the other way around.

"I'm extremely proud to be a part of this team, and proud of every guy in this clubhouse," Bregman said. "We've been knocked down a lot, gotten back up and we just got knocked down today. But we'll be back for 2020."

In many ways, Bregman personifies everything about what the Astros have become. Excellence. Fundamentals. Showmanship. Brashness. Efficiency. Passion. These are the qualities that stand out in our tech-driven world, especially as it's presented through the hyper-real looking glass of social media. The Astros are all of those things. They have lit the way for everyone else. The other 29 franchises in baseball have caught up at times, trying to extinguish a torch the Astros seem intent on carrying for the foreseeable future.

From a single-season standpoint, the Astros just completed one of the greatest campaigns a team has ever had. In surpassing 100 wins for a third straight season, they join a list with but five predecessors. They won 117 games between the regular season and playoffs. Their run differential during the regular season (plus-280) was the 12th-best total of all time.

There's more. According to the FanGraphs' offensive metric wRC+ (weighted runs created plus), the Astros' hitters were 25% better than average. Only the 1927 Yankees have exceeded that figure. Their rotation features two likely Hall of Famers in Justin Verlander and Greinke, and another in Cole who can reach that status if he is able to prolong his current run of excellence.

We just haven't seen many teams like this. And it still wasn't enough. Because it's baseball. Of the 12 teams that have posted a better run differential in a season than the Astros -- teams that averaged 106 wins -- seven went on to win the World Series. That's what being historically good gets you in this sport, a coin-flip chance to put a championship cherry on top.

"I don't think I can handle this," Jose Altuve, the heart of the Astros, said. "It's really hard to lose Game 7 of the World Series. What I can tell you is we did everything we could, possible and impossible. We got guys playing since day one, 100 percent. We did everything to make it happen. We couldn't [finish it], but that's baseball."

The 2019 postseason was a relatively slow roll for the Astros. They were outscored by their opponents 72-71. They needed five games to take out the Tampa Bay Rays, six to upend the New York Yankees and the full seven to try to silence the tough Washington Nationals. Houston entered the fray as the favorite and exited it as a near miss, but at no time during its sojourn did the outcome feel like a foregone conclusion.

In the Houston clubhouse, though, there was little day-to-day variation in the atmosphere. Every day was simply the precursor until tomorrow. There was no panic, nor any overconfidence. The Astros entered each game certain they'd win and that never wavered, even as their margin for error shrank. They surely still feel as if they are better than everyone else. It's a conceit they've earned over a period of a half-decade now.

This is a confident team. Even cocky. Even arrogant. Even brash. All qualities that rub fans the wrong way, unless it's your team that has them. But with those traits comes emotion, a belief, and there is little doubt that until the very moment that Brantley swung over a Daniel Hudson slider, Houston figured it would somehow win. Because the Astros have so often for three years now.

Then -- poof -- it's over.

"I believe we'll have more opportunities to win World Series and play in the postseason," Bregman said. "This team was amazing -- 107 wins. This team will bounce back from this and come ready to play next year."

The Astros are the avatars of the baseball moment in which we are immersed. They have led the way down countless paths, and not all of them obviously good. Their tentacles are everywhere, from tanking as a rebuilding strategy to heightened emphasis on strikeouts (as in not doing it on offense, and getting them on defense) to the focus on high-spin four-seamers, the ramping up of the usage of breaking pitches for the pitchers who have them, video scouting, defensive shifts. All stuff that the get-off-my-lawn branch of baseball fandom hates -- it mostly seems to have been born or popularized with the Astros.

However, to focus on those things is to overlook the timeless things about this remarkable collection of talent. They led the majors in batting average. No team struck out fewer times. They rode a very traditional-looking starting rotation almost to another crown. They run the bases efficiently but also aggressively. They are as good as anyone at minor league development, which has helped keep their prospect supply robust even as their contending rosters advance, succeed and become more expensive.

About that ... among the changes ahead, the worst one is not a certainty, but pretty close to it: The departure of Cole for what promises to be the richest pitching contract in baseball history.

"Not much," Cole said, when asked how much he was thinking about his future. At the moment, he was wearing a Boras Corporation hat.

That constant churn in baseball, with teams breaking apart and coming together in reimagined ways -- not all of them appealing -- are what make the near misses so painful. There are only so many chances.

With the final out of the World Series on Wednesday, the moment sealed another decade of baseball history. It was arguably the most innovative decade in the game's history, just as it might have been the most innovative decade in our country's history. With innovation comes disruption, a term that has become a cultural buzzword.

The Houston Astros are baseball's disruptors. In a time of information explosion, our understanding of every facet of the greatest game iterates with each new big batch of data. No one has been better at making sense of it all, while meshing the best of the old with the best of the new than the Astros. They are a team of heart and of mind.

"This is a great team and the one thing we can't do is go back and regret anything," Josh Reddick said. "We played our asses off out there. It was the best team I ever played on in my career. I'll never forget this team."

Love 'em, hate 'em, don't care about 'em. It doesn't matter. When the history of baseball in the 2010s is written, the Houston Astros might be on the cover. But that's not guaranteed, because with one title during the decade, it's hard to argue that Houston is the decade's best team, even if it might be the most representative. And there is no guarantee that the front-running Astros will remain out in front of a hungry bunch of predators in hot pursuit behind them.

It was so close to being different. It was so close to the birth of a new dynasty. But the quest continues. That much was guaranteed under the roof of Minute Maid Park on Wednesday night, the day before Halloween, when so many porches are decorated with jack-o-lanterns and the color orange is on everybody's mind.

Louis Oosthuizen’s first round at the WGC-HSBC Champions went from pretty good to pretty great with one swing at Sheshan International Golf Club.

Oosthuizen made a hole-in-one on the 197-yard, par-3 sixth hole on Thursday, landing his tee shot on the front of the green and watching it roll all the way until it disappeared into the bottom of the cup.

The ace was the fifth of the 2019-20 wraparound season, and while it didn’t win the 2010 Open champion a car, it did send him skyrocketing up the leaderboard. The world No. 26 sits inside the top 10 with 54 holes to play in China after a 4-under 68.

Mohammad Ashraful, the former Bangladesh captain, has some words of support for the banned Shakib Al Hasan, but believes the next 12 months will be a challenging time for the country's most iconic sportsperson.

Ashraful, who has now returned to playing first-class cricket after his five-year ban (two years suspended) for match-fixing in 2013, was speaking from his own experience of finding himself out in the cold after being implicated in the Bangladesh Premier League corruption scandal.

"Our cases are different; he didn't inform the fixing approaches to authorities, while I was fully involved in match-fixing," he told ESPNcricinfo. "But this is going to be a shock to the system. We love playing cricket. What Shakib is going through is hard to explain in words. I think there shouldn't be too much news about him. Dealing with so much news was hard [for me]."

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Ashraful admits to sleeping through the day when he was banned, until he found a new calling. He doesn't think Shakib will face similar issues, though. "I slept through the first six months," he said. "I used to watch TV all night, and then wake up at around 2pm in the afternoon. I then performed Hajj, which gave me a new perspective."

"I always wondered whether I would be able to play again, mainly because of my age [Ashraful was 30 when he was banned]. The cricket board is helping Shakib. I got support but it wasn't what Shakib will get. Also we must remember that players like Mashrafe Mortaza, who was often injured, and Shakib have always made extraordinary comebacks."

Ashraful admitted to being pleasantly surprised to receive overwhelming support from fans during his time away. "When I played for Bangladesh, I always had half the people support me and the other half disliking me," he said. "After I confessed [to my involvement in the match-fixing scandal] and apologised to everyone, around 95% were in my support. Nobody believed that I did it alone. It wasn't possible."

Ashraful spoke of the ground realities of a banned cricketer, saying keeping fit was the biggest challenge for him. While he couldn't train or play recognised cricket in Bangladesh, Ashraful tried to find other avenues overseas, even if it meant playing in unsanctioned tournaments. He even helped out a team of lawyers wanting to get a grasp of the game.

"I wasn't allowed to play or train anywhere during the three years. I used to play with lawyers in Dhaka," he said. "I played in tournaments in the US where there were no sanctions. I played around the country in different places. I met new people, had new experiences. Shakib wouldn't have to go through anything like this. He will be allowed to train in Mirpur. He won't have any problem like I did."

Still, Ashraful admitted to feeling a sense of sadness at seeing a fellow player suffer similar fate. "I had the belief that no Bangladeshi cricketer would get into this kind of trouble after me," he said. "We have very different cases, but still the punishment is to stay away from cricket.

"I felt bad. Shakib is the No. 1 allrounder in the world. He is our best player. He plays franchise leagues. When I say Shakib made his mistake, I think he didn't take it [reporting approaches] too seriously. What also happens now is that everyone will be alert with these approaches. What to do when there's an approach. Nobody should make this mistake. We could never imagine that Shakib would make this mistake."

Glenn Maxwell will "spend a short time away" from cricket for mental health reasons, and will miss the upcoming T20Is against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, after confiding in coach Justin Langer before the Sri Lanka series started that he was struggling.

Maxwell played the opening two matches of the ongoing series against Sri Lanka, hitting 62 off 28 balls in the first fixture in Adelaide and not getting a chance to have a hit in the second, in Brisbane.

Langer said that Maxwell was "not having that much fun at the moment" and that his upbeat outward persona, which had been on show during the first two matches, including when on mic for the host broadcaster, were a "mask".

"When you build relationships with people you sense when they're not quite right and I asked him the day before the Adelaide game and that's when he said we probably need that little chat" Justin Langer

"Even though he had that incredible innings in Adelaide and fielded like a genius, I don't think he got much joy out of it," Langer said in Melbourne. "He's not having that much fun at the moment, even though he has that smile on his face when he plays.

"He'll get assessed in Melbourne in the next day or so and like all injuries, we'll work out where he's at and when he will play again, hopefully happier and healthier which is more important.

"That's the mask he puts on, it's his armour, his energy and the way he plays. He's the great entertainer but underneath the mask - you probably just sense it. When you build relationships with people you sense when they're not quite right and I asked him the day before the Adelaide game and that's when he said we probably need that little chat."

ALSO READ: Interview - 'You can't play cricket bitter, you stop concentrating'

After further discussions in recent days, it was announced on Thursday - the eve of the third match against Sri Lanka - that Maxwell would be leaving the squad with the full support of Cricket Australia, who have praised his proactiveness in making them aware of the situation.

Team psychologist Dr Michael Lloyd said, "Glenn Maxwell has been experiencing some difficulties with regards to his mental health. As a result, he will spend a short time away from the game. Glenn was proactive in identifying these issues and engaging with support staff."

Ben Oliver, the executive general manager of the national teams, said: "The well-being of our players and staff is paramount. Glenn has our full support. Cricket Australia will work collaboratively with Cricket Victoria's support staff to ensure Glenn's well-being and his reintegration into the game.

"We ask that everyone gives Glenn and his family and friends space; and respects their privacy at this time. He's a special player and an important part of the Australian cricket family. We hope to see him back in the team during the summer. It's important we look after Glenn and all our players."

D'Arcy Short has been chosen as a replacement player and will join the squad on Friday ahead of the final match against Sri Lanka at the MCG. Australia then face Pakistan in three T20Is starting on Sunday in Sydney.

Earl Eddings helmed Cricket Australia's Annual General Body Meeting on Thursday as Cricket Australia look to earn back greater respect and connection to the wider game. The mood of the meeting was far different to a packed and fertile room at the MCG last year, for the release of a cultural review of Australian cricket that ultimately cost CA chairman David Peever his post.

Eddings himself remarked jokingly that "the fact there's no media here seems to indicate we've become dull and boring again." This wasn't to say both the size of the game down under and its myriad challenges weren't evident in either the numbers presented at the AGM or the rhetoric that accompanied it.

While CA were able to report an operating surplus of A$18 million for 2018-19 from total revenue worth A$435 million, a marked improvement on 2017-18, a further drilling into the numbers indicate plenty remains to be done. Summers featuring an inbound tour of India have long been regarded as the major cash raiser for CA, notwithstanding the growth of the Big Bash League as a separate revenue stream.

Last summer's return in terms of operating surplus was actually the smallest for a summer featuring India for a major series in well over a decade. In 2007-08, CA netted returns worth A$24 million. In 2011-12, the figures were A$48 million in 2011-12, while in 2014-15, the returns were a whopping A$99 million (the season also featured a World Cup they co-hosted with New Zealand).

This reflects a changing global cricket landscape in terms of media rights available for bilateral tours, though CA is very much on more comfortable financial turf than the majority of the ICC's member nations.

A modest crowd of 11,968, albeit on a weeknight, for Wednesday's T20I against Sri Lanka at the Gabba provided a reminder for Eddings and company that the balance remained a fine one.

"It's always a challenge with our schedule, marrying international and red ball commitments along with our Big Bash, so that's always a constant change we make to refine that," Eddings told ESPNricinfo. "The two touring [Test] teams this year don't register strong international media rights, and we know, that's why we have our four-year cycle so we can plan the ebbs and flows across this cycle.

"I think what's important is that at the end of the cycle you've grown the game, which we're on target to do. You do it concurrently - you've got to always work on your relationships and while I think we've done that exceptionally well this year, you can't take that for granted. Any chair of any board is going to be looking to build relationships."

Coming up on the calendar are two T20 World Cups, for women in February-March and then for men in October-November, both expected to reap handsome returns for CA and the ICC, though nothing like the bonanza of 2015.

"I think it was a bold step and I'm proud we did that, because we're finding now that across the world people are going to start following that model," Eddings said of splitting the two events, a decision taken in 2016. "And women's cricket has evolved so quickly in a positive way, I think they've earned the right to have their own tournament. The local organising committee are working really hard to give focus to both events, so I'm really positive they're going to be two great, albeit different events.

"I'd expect some upside, it won't be as big as the previous World Cup, there's not as much content, it doesn't go as long, all those sorts of things, so it's a different financial model than the 2015 World Cup. I'm hoping we have a good event and get a good return but too early to say what it may or may not be."

Internally, too, there was challenge presented in terms of better governance of the game in Australia, in the form of a valedictory address by the outgoing chair of CA's independent audit and risk committee, the noted sporting governance expert John Davies.

Speaking directly to CA's state association owners, Davies was blunt in stating that quite often self-interest was hidden beneath measures or opinions expressing doubt in allowing the game's future to be charted strategically at the top.

"I think if people who are elected to roles in leadership at both the state level and the national level, executive their responsibilities properly, in leadership, integrity and courage, you'd be really surprised by what you can achieve," Davies said. "If you take your individual hat off and put 'what is in the interests of the greater sport, in the long term interests of the sport' I'm sure you can achieve significant change that will benefit this sport for many years to come."

Eddings, himself now embarking upon a governance review of the ICC, agreed that there was more evolution to come. "John's been a great servant and considered a bit of a governance guru around the world," he said. "I think what he was talking about is that now we have developed a level of trust, which we all agree had been lacking for a number of years. Now is the time to look at what other governance reforms we can make.

"Our major reforms six-seven years ago didn't solve all our problems. We didn't solve all the governance issues we need to, so that's something we'll certainly look at in the future. But I think his comments were around because we have built a high level of trust with the states, maybe it's time to look at what else we can do.

"I think everyone knew we were on the start of a journey and that wouldn't solve all our governance issues, and I didn't think you do, things always change and evolve and you've got to have a governance structure fit for purpose at the time."

Eddings also touched upon how CA has worked to repair and strengthen relationships across the game. From the Australian Cricketers Association and the states to media and corporate partners, Eddings stated that the proof of progress was in a growing level of warmth and respect for the national men's team from the depths of the Newlands scandal to their more than creditable displays in the World Cup and the Ashes this year.

"I don't want to be one of the organisations out there beating their own drum," he said. "But If I look at some of the evidence anecdotal and formal, all our stakeholders have been glowing in the turnaround in the way Cricket Australia engages with them. I look at that as a positive. Any culture change you can't take it for granted, and while we're ahead probably of where I thought we'd be in the cycle, I'm really proud we're moving forward and everyone's focused on the cricket. There's no finish line with culture, it's a rolling, nebulous thing you've got to keep nurturing.

"I've been really proud about how much we've focused on the women's game but also putting back into community cricket, that's something where we've been very highly focused on. Now you'll see the high performance piece kick in. All those things, we have many moving parts of Australian cricket we manage and have we dropped too many balls, I hope we haven't.

"But what's more important is that it's about the players, and you've seen that with the Ashes and the World Cup that I think the Australian public is stating to fall in love with our team again. They're genuine, they're authentic and they're playing the way that Australia wants to be represented."