Shakib Al Hasan, Bangladesh's Test and T20I captain, has made it clear that he is not "mentally prepared" or ready or interested in continuing to lead the team in any format, and would rather focus on his own game to be of greater value to the cause. He wants the younger crop of players be given more responsibility over the next four-year cycle, but understands that the team needs him to lead in what is a tricky phase.

"I am not even mentally prepared to lead in Tests and T20s," Shakib told the daily Prothom Alo. "But the team is not in a good shape, so I understand that I have to lead to get it back on track. Otherwise, I am not really interested in leading in any format. I can focus on myself if I am not captaining, which would help the team.

"I want to see the younger lot to take responsibility. We [Mushfiqur Rahim and he, in the main] got captaincy at a very young age, but they [the next bunch] have now turned 26-27. Unless you give them responsibility, you won't know what they can do. The World Test Championship and T20 World Cup are up ahead, so we should plan for the next four years."

The current captaincy stint is Shakib's second in a full-time capacity in Tests and T20Is. He became captain of T20Is when Mashrafe Mortaza retired from the format in April 2017, and got the Test captaincy after the sacking of Mushfiqur Rahim in December that year.

Shakib's public expression of disinterest in the role - a first in his 13-year-long international career - stems from his earliest experiences as Bangladesh captain. After deputising for an injured Mashrafe from mid-2009, he was made the permanent captain in 2011, but eight months later, he lost his job in the aftermath of a drab World Cup campaign. He, however, has since been the most consistent performer in the team, and enjoyed a dream run in the World Cup earlier this year. His consistency, not to mention his seniority, also puts him in line for the ODI captaincy once Mashrafe retires.

Shakib pointed out that a captain, by default, is expected to perform consistently himself, so he doesn't get too bogged down. He cited Mashrafe's example from this year's World Cup, where the captain took just one wicket in the eight matches Bangladesh played.

"I had the belief that we could go further in this World Cup, and it may have been possible if we had contributions from everyone," Shakib said. "When a player doesn't perform, he thinks more about himself than the team, which creates the problem. I think it happened in Mashrafe bhai's case.

"It was a big issue, for himself and the team, that the captain wasn't performing. The captain has to perform, but we were behind in that aspect. It wasn't impossible [to reach the semi-finals]; we made a good start to the World Cup, but we couldn't hold on to it."

Bangladesh's - and Shakib's - next assignment is a one-off Test in Chattogram against Afghanistan starting September 5, followed by a T20I tri-series against Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.

BONHAM, Texas -- Former Baylor coach Art Briles, who was fired by the school in 2016 in the wake of a sexual assault scandal, made his return to the high school sidelines in Texas on Friday, saying, "I just want to coach football."

It was Briles' first game coaching in the United States since his firing more than three years ago. His Mount Vernon (Texas) High team defeated Bonham High 44-16.

Briles, 63, said he hasn't paid attention to criticism over his return to coaching football stateside.

"You know, honestly, I haven't looked or noticed," said Briles, who coached the Guelfi Firenze American football team in Florence, Italy, for one season before accepting the Mount Vernon job in May. "Y'all don't wanna believe it, but I just like to coach football. That's all I pay attention to, and that's all I've ever done. People can think and say whatever they want to think and say. I have no control over that."

Friday night marked Briles' first time coaching at the high school level since 1999. He coached high school football in Texas for 20 years before entering the college ranks as an assistant at Texas Tech, including an 11-year run at Stephenville (Texas) High that included four state championships.

Though Bonham ISD administrators prepared for unusual circumstances with much attention around Briles, it was a mostly normal Friday night high school football game. There were no protesters. Signs weren't allowed, but administrators said nobody attempted to bring one. The estimated crowd of 4,000 came and went without incident.

The primary differences were the presence of numerous media outlets and extra security. Briles had an officer escort him to and from the locker room, and Bonham ISD set up small metal barricades to allow the team to get to and from the field without incident.

District administrators had an earlier call time for the game and opened up the gates earlier than normal, but otherwise, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Briles stopped and shook hands with numerous people as he went to and from the field pregame and postgame.

Besides the extra reporters, Bonham ISD athletic director Ryan Brock said, "It was a normal Friday night."

Briles, who accepted the job at Mount Vernon on Memorial Day weekend but didn't arrive in town until a week before August training camp started, said he had a lot of emotions and was grateful for the chance to return.

"You know, I've got so many [emotions]," he said. "A lot of mine are personal, and nothing to do with anything that's happened other than through my father, because he coached all his life and he never got to see me coach, never got to see me get married, never got to be around me. That's the emotion I go with, because I want to share that with other people. I want them to understand how precious each day is and how you should always be grateful if you're given an opportunity.

"I've been given an opportunity at Mount Vernon High School in Mount Vernon, Texas, because of some people that believe in me, so I'm extremely grateful and thankful for them."

Thanks to the intriguing matchup between No. 11 Oregon and No. 16 Auburn on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET on ABC) -- the only Week 1 game featuring two AP-ranked opponents -- there is already lofty significance to this weekend in college football.

And we're not even talking about the playoff.

It starts with the perception of the Pac-12, which has faced heightened criticism after missing the College Football Playoff and finishing below .500 in bowl games each of the past two seasons. After producing a three-loss conference champion last fall, the league could desperately use an Oregon victory to help change the negative narrative. Stanford will also have a chance to give the league a boost Saturday if it can beat Northwestern, last season's Big Ten West champion, but Oregon will have the biggest opportunity and appears to be in the best position, returning a league-high 10 starters, including Heisman hopeful quarterback Justin Herbert.

There's also the questionable future of Auburn coach Gus Malzahn, who has seemingly appeared on every hot-seat list this preseason in spite of a $49 million contract and what's currently a top-10 recruiting class. Auburn has stared down this situation before -- opening last season against a ranked Pac-12 team -- but the Tigers failed to build upon the 21-16 victory over No. 6 Washington in Atlanta and stumbled to an 8-5 finish.

Hence the hot seat, and while a loss to Oregon won't get Malzahn fired, the rest of the schedule certainly could. Auburn plays at Florida and against Georgia in its SEC crossover games, and doesn't have any home games in October. A win against a ranked Ducks team should position the Tigers for a 3-0 start, which would be invaluable heading into the Sept. 21 trip to Texas A&M.

Malzahn knows all this, but said he isn't consumed by it.

"If you take a job like Auburn, where we expect to win championships, you know what you're getting into," Malzahn said. "You've got to do your job and understand that it's a blessing to have a job like this. This is a place you can win championships. This will be my 10th year here. We've played for two national championships, three SEC championships and won two of those. That's just part of the job description."

The Pac-12 is already playing from behind after tripping over itself with an 0-1 start. Arizona's experienced defense gave up 45 points and just shy of 600 yards in a 45-38 loss to Hawaii last Saturday. It sounds like an afterthought to the wild, messy game between Florida and Miami, but it was another nonconference blemish for a league that has an embarrassing 4-13 record in bowl games over the past two seasons.

Ducks coach Mario Cristobal, who is entering his second season, said his program is "improving at a pretty rapid clip," but that Oregon isn't the only one in the league trending up.

"I think a two-year absence from the College Football Playoff doesn't necessarily make or break a conference," Cristobal said. "That's noise out there. Playing well and having a team or two make it to the playoff would maybe silence some of those critics, but the focus has to be strictly on the betterment of each and every program. The recruiting classes, and the coaching influx of the Pac-12 in the past few years has been really impressive. We expect the conference to get better and better and compete for championships."

The Ducks will have a chance to showcase it Saturday, and at least one selection committee member will be there ...

Film festival: All 13 members of the CFP selection committee have been issued their iPads, and by Sunday morning will be able to view the cut-ups of every game. Committee chairman Rob Mullens will be in Arlington, Texas, as the Ducks' athletic director, and while he is recused from voting on Oregon when the committee meets in November, it's a chance for him to see Auburn live.

"When we get to Dallas and we put the full résumés on there, we're going to be looking at somewhere between eight and nine games for every team," Mullens said. "The committee commits a lot of hours, beginning in Week 0. I will assure you every committee member watched the games from last week, and that will continue on until we meet in person."

Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin is also on the selection committee, and he saw the Gators hand the ACC its first loss. The ACC can have an epic rebound, though it might be asking a little much ...

A different Longhorn "network": It's a reunion for former Texas coach Mack Brown and former Texas head-coach-in-waiting Will Muschamp, who will face each other Saturday in Charlotte, North Carolina (3:30 p.m. ET Saturday on ESPN), when Brown begins his second stint as North Carolina head coach in the opener against Muschamp's South Carolina Gamecocks. "He did a tremendous job for us there," Brown said. "We had a chance to win the national championship while he was there. That's why we gave him that title. We thought we wanted to keep him, and a lot of people were coming after him. He's smart, he's tough, he's aggressive. He did a tremendous job for us." Now Brown has to beat him with a true freshman quarterback, Sam Howell.

"We are going down there to win a football game," but Duke coach David Cutcliffe knows how difficult it will be to beat Alabama in Atlanta (3:30 p.m. ET Saturday on ABC) -- he's a Bama grad (class of 1976), and called the Crimson Tide "the most talented team top to bottom in the country." Still, Cutcliffe said his program has "earned this type of opportunity," the recruiting has been on the rise, and his team is fast and offensively diverse. Will that show against the No. 2 team in the country? Or will this look like another lopsided victory against a weaker nonconference opponent?

This ain't App State-Michigan ... First-year Louisville coach Scott Satterfield was an assistant coach at Appalachian State in 2007, when the Mountaineers sprang one of the most memorable upsets in the history of the sport. He was asked this week if there's anything he can take from it and apply it to the preparation for No. 9 Notre Dame (8 p.m. ET Monday on ESPN). Uh, no. "The fact that we're a big underdog and playing a well-known team that's coming in here, I think that's the correlation," he said, "and it might stop right there." Notre Dame should hope it does.

The SEC is already 1-0 thanks to Florida, but the Beast of the East is ... not Vandy. The Commodores are 0-54 against top-5 opponents, the most losses without a victory in AP poll history (since 1936). And here comes No. 3 Georgia (7:30 p.m. ET Saturday on SEC Network). The Bulldogs have won 13 consecutive SEC East games, the longest such winning streak since the SEC split into divisions in 1992. Can they do it again? QB Jake Fromm is back, but his top five receivers are not.

Back in the Big 12: First-year Houston coach Dana Holgorsen is picking up right where he left off in the 2018 regular season -- in what should be another thriller against No. 4 Oklahoma (7:30 p.m. ET Sunday on ABC). In his final season as coach at West Virginia, Holgorsen lost 59-56 to the Sooners. Now he has a very talented Cougars team that should push the Sooners to the brink. While much of the attention will be on the Oklahoma debut of quarterback Jalen Hurts, Houston's D'Eriq King is pretty special, too. Houston has won its past three games against AP top-5 teams, with one of those victories coming against Oklahoma in 2016.

Houston Rockets guard Eric Gordon has agreed to a three-year, $54.5 million contract extension that will take him through the 2022-23 season, league sources told ESPN on Friday night.

Gordon's deal -- which starts with the 2020-21 season -- includes a $20.9 million season in 2023-24 that would become guaranteed if Gordon makes an All-Star team or if the Rockets win an NBA championship during the course of the deal, league sources said.

The Houston Chronicle first reported an extension had been reached.

Gordon, 30, was entering the final year of his contract in 2019-20, which is worth $14 million.

Gordon has averaged nearly 17 points in his three seasons with the Rockets, including an NBA Sixth Man of the Year award.

Gordon is part of a nucleus that includes James Harden, Russell Westbrook and Clint Capela that's expected to compete with the elite in the Western Conference.

DARLINGTON, S.C. – One of the more iconic throwback paint schemes in this year’s NASCAR Xfinity Series field came courtesy of a driver who didn’t necessarily expect to be running the livery at Darlington Raceway.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones rolled out a Gray Ghost-themed No. 19 Mojo Outdoor/iK9 Toyota Supra for practice on Friday at the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval, paying homage to the late Buddy Baker’s 1980 Daytona 500-winning Oldsmobile that terrorized the competition during that time.

Baker drove that machine for Ranier Racing, while Jones is in his second season with JGR in the Xfinity Series. Sponsor iK9 actually brought the idea to run Baker’s Gray Ghost throwback to driver and team.

“Man, this thing looks pretty cool,” Jones told SPEED SPORT. “I didn’t question it at all whenever they (the iK9 representatives) mentioned that (as a throwback). We had a few ideas, but that was the one they liked. … Going back and looking at some of the cars of the past, not many of them had a name, you know? There were very few that gained a name and a reputation like that Gray Ghost of Buddy’s did. It’s a pretty cool, iconic car that we get to race in honor of Buddy and I’m excited to be able to do that here this weekend.”

A fairly-avid history buff when it comes to auto racing, Jones couldn’t hold back a grin when asked what Darlington means to him as a younger driver.

“I’m a guy who loves Westerns and I love back in the day, old timey stuff,” he said. “So it’s cool to see the throwback stuff and how into it the fans get. You know, I love the big trucker hats everybody shows up with, and it honestly educates me as a younger driver. I didn’t grow up in this era, so I’ve had to kind of go back and research some of these cars … and I’ve actually started finding out a bunch of stuff.

“This type of thing does push you towards that a little bit, and it’s sometimes pretty cool to find out some stuff that maybe you didn’t know or didn’t realize before. But this place is special, no doubt.”

Jones was a disappointing 16th in the opening hour of practice on Friday, but rose up the order to eighth in final practice and picked up a tenth of a second in the process, despite a track-temperature increase.

“Gray Ghost was not too bad on the track this afternoon, even though we did a few more laps than we wanted to (in) that first practice,” Jones noted. “You know, there’s only so much you can learn on a set of tires here; it obviously chews them up really bad. It gets really slick, and we had really hot temperatures today as well, which was pretty difficult to grasp the handle of the track during.

“I’m looking forward to the weekend, though,” he continued. “This is always a tough track that we come to on the schedule, but one that’s way different and fun as well. I enjoy racing here.”

Though he started to get things clicking with his team, Jones admitted that Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts/VFW 200 will pose plenty of unknowns, and he isn’t sure just yet what the key to victory will be.

“Darlington … it’s a weird track,” said Jones. “I mentioned that it tears tires up so much, but at the same time, you don’t want to give up any track position and you really want to have to run the tires off of it every stage and chance that you get. It’s a fine line between success and failure. You know, you go out there and you look like Superman for a while and then, there comes somebody that passes you who saved their tires some.”

So who has Jones leaned on to figure things out as he chases his first Darlington victory?

“I’ve been watching Kevin Harvick’s onboard (footage) some from last year,” he tipped. “I think that was a help. We’ll see how much I learned when it comes down to race time, but I think we’ll be in the mix.”

If he is, his throwback paint scheme might just evoke memories of the old days that Jones is so fond of, when Baker would stealthily sneak up on the competition thanks to a car that was said to blend into the asphalt at full speed.

“Hopefully they won’t see us coming and we can take a trophy back home with us,” Jones smiled.

Jones’ Gray Ghost throwback is not the first car in recent years that has nodded to Baker’s iconic color scheme.

After Dale Earnhardt Jr. was forced to sit out the second half of the 2016 season with a concussion, Jeff Gordon drove Earnhardt’s Baker-inspired No. 88 Chevrolet during Darlington’s throwback weekend on Labor Day weekend in 2016.

Earnhardt then brought the livery back in October of 2017 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

INDIANAPOLIS – Brittany Force powered her way to the provisional No. 1 spot in Top Fuel on Friday during the 65th annual Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis.

Jack Beckman (Funny Car), Jason Line (Pro Stock) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are also provisional No. 1 qualifiers in their respective categories at the final regular-season race of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.

Force, who is seeking her first Indy win, ran 3.670 seconds at 327.27 mph in her Advance Auto Parts dragster to take the top spot. If the run, which was just off the track record at Indy, holds, it would give Force her sixth No. 1 qualifier of 2019 and 16th in her career. Defending world champion and points leader Steve Torrence was the only other driver to reach the 3.60 second bracket, going 3.688 seconds at 323.81 mph to sit second. His father, Billy, is third as he tries to break into the top 10 this weekend.

“It definitely felt fast,” Force said. “We went right down the track and put an awesome number on the board. It was a pretty awesome run, but the next two days are going to be the important ones setting us up for Monday. We’re really looking for consistency because that’s where we’ve been struggling, so this is a good start to the weekend and we’re very happy with that. I want to win here. I’ve been coming here since I was a baby and it’s on my bucket list.”

Funny Car’s Beckman, who is after his first win of the year, drove his Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat to an impressive 3.875-second pass at 328.46 mph. It would give Beckman, the 2015 Indy winner, his first No. 1 qualifier this year and 25th in his career if it holds.

His Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps, who won the most recent race in Brainerd, is second, while J.R. Todd, the defending and back-to-back Indy winner, sits third.

In Pro Stock, Line went 6.570 seconds at 209.62 mph to take the No. 1 spot in his Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro. Line, who won the most recent event in Brainerd, is aiming for his second-straight and third overall top qualifier of the season, and 56th in his career. Erica Enders, the runner-up at Brainerd, is second after Friday, while points leader Bo Butner is third.

Pro Stock Motorcycle points leader Hines raced to the top spot on his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson, going 6.864 seconds at 194.63 mph. It would give Hines, a seven-time winner this year, his third No. 1 qualifier of the season and 45th in his career. Defending world champion Matt Smith is currently second and Jerry Savoie sits third.

In the E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by J&A Service, three-time world champ Rickie Smith took the top spot on Friday with a run of 5.746 seconds at 251.95 mph in his Camaro.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Championship hopeful Dalton Gauthier scored a critical victory in Friday night’s Springfield Short Track to claim sole possession of the Roof Systems AFT Singles presented by Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys points lead.

The action at the Illinois State Fairgrounds was every bit as tense and frenetic as one would expect an Roof Systems AFT Singles Short Track showdown to be. In the midst of a tight title fight with three races remaining on the American Flat Track calendar, and serving as a microcosm of the season to date, while a handful of riders enjoyed their moments in the spotlight. Ultimately it all came down to Gauthier and reigning class champion Dan Bromley.

Former AFT Twins presented by Vance & Hines standout Chad Cose stormed to the holeshot and threatened to break free of the chaos before anyone else had an opportunity to react. However, Gauthier rolled forward on the momentum he had built up all day long when he ran quickest in both qualifying sessions and ripped to heat and semi victories.

Gauthier first slashed ahead of Spanish dirt track hero Ferran Cardús to move into third and then ran up the inside of Bromley to take over second on lap seven. By lap 10, he was hounding Cose inside and outside, applying heavy pressure wherever possible in hopes of prompting a mistake.

That mistake came on lap 13. Gauthier squared up Cose and the two very nearly came together on the short straight as Gauthier slid ahead into first. Once clear, the new leader was able to call on his superior pace to pull open just enough of a gap to negate the possibility of a potential last-lap Hail Mary.

Title rival Bromley was going in the opposite direction, dropping down to fourth after he was also overhauled by Peoria TT winner Dallas Daniels.

Sixteen-year-old prodigy Daniels had earned the pole but was shuffled back to seventh early. Undeterred, he clawed his way through the fray, not only edging ahead of Bromley but lining up Cose for the runner-up position.

Desperate to minimize the championship damage done by another Gauthier victory, Bromley turned in a clutch sequence of his own. With time running out, the defending champ dove up the inside of Daniels and Cose in two consecutive corners to leap up from fourth to second in one short lap. From there he held on to the checkered flag to remain within five points of Gauthier for the Roof Systems AFT Singles championship lead (241-236).

The victory was Gauthier’s third of the season.

“It’s huge. Coming into these last few races, it’s anyone’s game,” said Gauthier. I’m trying to get in front of Dan as much as I can, but he’s running strong. We’re having fun.

“Chad rode a really great race. It took me a few laps to catch him, but he was riding defensively. I just waited. I knew I had a few laps to go so I just waited for the mistake. He made one, and we got pretty close, but it was clean racing.”

Daniels secured his second consecutive podium, in third, in what was just his sixth-career AFT outing, while Cose ended up one spot off the box after leading the majority of the laps.

Meanwhile, Mikey Rush kept his championship aspirations alive in fifth. While the bulk of the focus is understandably on Gauthier and Bromley, Rush remains very much in contention. He’s within striking distance — 25 points back of the lead (216) — with a Half-Mile and two Miles left to decide the 2019 crown.