Wind the clock back to March 2013. Im boarding a flight home from India with Michael Clarke. Hes out of the final Test of that series in Delhi with a back flare-up, while Im travelling home after being the injury replacement for Matthew Wade in Mohali.Plenty has gone on in the preceding week or so, the homework-related suspensions of Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Usman Khawaja and James Pattinson in particular. So we take the opportunity to speak pretty openly about how the team is functioning, and how unhappy everyone is with the way the Indian tour has panned out, in the way some players have been treated and the mood around the team.For one thing, expectations of behaviour seem to be driven by management rather than players, and thats something that needs to change.Mickey Arthur is yet to be replaced by Darren Lehmann, but its an important conversation in terms of how Michael thinks the team should operate in the coming months. It helps too that having been away from the team for a while, I can see things from an angle Michael isnt seeing. One change in the interim is the much more experienced side chosen for the Ashes tour that follows.While I did not officially hold the title at the time, thats a good example of how a deputy should operate. Vice-captaincy is a low-profile job thats not fully understood by many, but it is vital to helping get a successful team moving in the right direction together. One bedrock of the gig is to have a deputy committed to that role, rather than thinking about being captain himself. That was certainly the case with me.The other foundation of the job is a relationship with the captain that allows you to speak frankly with him about where the team is going - in private rather than in front of the team. Keeping an ear to the ground and communicating with other players and then relaying that to the leader when necessary. Having gone back a long way with Michael, we had that sort of dynamic.These conversations should be honest enough to be able to say, I dont think this is working, and this is how the group is feeling, or I think you might have missed this. These arent always the easiest conversations, but they have to happen from a place of mutual respect. The captain can either take note or disregard it, but the main thing is that he knows how things are tracking when he does make his final call on a given issue. That doesnt happen without a healthy relationship between captain and deputy.Overall, the role of the vice-captain is to complement what the captain does. Your job is to make sure the younger guys are feeling a part of the team and that they understand the standards that you want to set in the group and that your behaviour is not to be compromised.You pick up on the little things around the team, like being punctual, wearing the right uniforms and treating people inside and outside the team with respect, and have a quiet word to guys here and there if they need a reminder. That then flows into attention to detail in the middle.Michael was a very good tactical captain who was always in control on the field. My job, relative to him - and similarly for other senior players - was to make sure the mood of the team was right, and to set standards for the younger guys to follow; to be sure they knew what it meant to be an Australian cricketer. The vice-captain should be the guy to drive that.Once we got to England in 2013, I took it upon myself to spend time with each player to talk about the brand of cricket we wanted to play and also to make sure guys were talking and reflecting on the game and each other, whether wed had a good day or a bad day.We did that after a close loss in the first Test at Trent Bridge and that was a good moment - we werent retreating into ourselves in defeat. Once again, that flowed well into the success we had later, because guys were talking and enjoying each others good days, having commiserated through the bad ones.For a long time in cricket, I think that sort of thing happened pretty organically. But in an era when the game is so professionalised and guys are jetting around playing T20 tournaments when not with Australia or even their domestic teams, it takes thoughtful effort to make sure it still happens. If anything, vice-captaincy has grown in importance for that reason.I mentioned earlier that one key to the job is not wanting the captaincy. If you look back through the recent history of Australian cricket, the examples are plentiful. Geoff Marsh was a terrific lieutenant to Allan Border, Ian Healy to Mark Taylor, and Adam Gilchrist to Ricky Ponting. They are three contrasting characters, but what they had in common was no great desire to be captain. I saw Gillys work up close as a junior member of the squad, and he was a terrific link man between the leadership and the team. As fellow glovemen, I also saw how the role behind the stumps gave you a great perspective to support the captain.There have been other times, of course, when the vice-captain is the heir-apparent. That was the case for Taylor, when he was deputy to AB, for Steve Waugh, when he replaced Heals as vice-captain to Taylor, and for Michael, when he was appointed deputy to Ricky after Gilly retired. All those guys will tell you that it put them in awkward positions at times, not knowing whether to intervene in things or not, whether on or off the field.Similarly, Watson had a difficult time as Michaels deputy because they did not have the same open relationship to discuss things that I was fortunate enough to have. Thats something for Cricket Australia to keep in mind whenever it makes these appointments.Right now, Steven Smith has an able deputy in David Warner. To me, this relationship should work because, like Michael and I, these two have known each other for years. Davey is growing into the role at present, evolving from his former attack dog persona into someone more measured. If he ever wants a reminder of how vice-captaincy should or shouldnt work, he needs only to think back to a year like 2013 and the teams contrasting fortunes. Cheap Nike NBA Jerseys Free Shipping . "We have always prided ourselves on the way we play defence. Having two big pieces back is going to be a key for us moving forward for years to come," said Knighthawks head coach Mike Hasen. Wholesale Nike NBA Jerseys For Sale . Darren Helm scored on Detroits sixth attempt in the shootout and then Jonas Gustavsson stopped Andrew Shaws shot, lifting the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night. http://www.cheapchinajerseysnba.com/ .500 on the season. The Jets are now 0-5-1 in the second game of back-to-backs. The game started the same way the Vancouver game started the night before, with the Jets taking the first two penalties of the game and killing off the first, but the Oilers getting on the board first, scoring on the second man-advantage. Nike NBA Jerseys Outlet . Calgary scored on the first shift, and Michael Cammalleri scored twice as the Flames cruised to a 5-2 win over the Washington Capitals on Saturday. Wholesale Nike NBA Jerseys Store . The head of USA Boxing came out swinging Tuesday with an open letter to Tyson -- a former Olympic hopeful himself -- that accuses the former heavyweight champion of trying to poach fighters who might be candidates for the U. SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Colin Kaepernick will get one more chance to impress coach Chip Kelly before the San Francisco 49ers announce their starting quarterback even as the debate surrounding Kaepernicks refusal to stand for the national anthem remains heated.Kelly said Tuesday that Kaepernick will play in the teams final exhibition game Thursday night in San Diego after missing the first two preseason games with a tired shoulder. This will be Kaepernicks first game since he spoke publicly over his anthem protest, saying he wont stand during the anthem because of what he described as oppression of minorities in the United States.The 49ers declined to comment on whether there will be increased security in place for the game in San Diego when Kaepernick has said he once again will sit during the national anthem.Blaine Gabbert, who is also in the running for the starting job, wont play because he has gotten 30 more plays in the preseason and Kelly does not need to evaluate him further.Kelly said he will pick a starter for the regular season opener against Los Angeles on Sept. 12 sometime after Thursday nights game. He said Kaepernick remains one of his two best quarterbacks.Despite that, Kelly said general manager Trent Baalke will make the final call on whether Kaepernick remains on the teams roster after the cut to 53 players on Saturday.Its not up to me, Kelly said. Any decisions on this team are made through everybody. I do not have control of the 53-man roster. I dont sit there and say this is the 53 were picking. Its a group effort.Kelly said he wasnt sure how many quarterbacks the team will keep for the regular season. Rookie Jeff Driskel and Christian Ponder are the other two quarterbacks on the roster.Kelly said the swirling drama around Kaepernicks protest hasnt hindered the team as it prepares for the new season despite an increased media attention since Kaepernicks stance became public on Saturday.When you talk to our players, theyre focused on the 2016 season and how good a team the San Francisco 49ers can be, Kelly said. As we said all along, we recognize his right to express his feelings, but that doesnt affect what we do from when we get here at 8:15 in the morning and leave at 8 oclock at night.Perhaps the bigger issue when it comes to Kaepernicks status on the team has been his declining play. After leading the team to the Super Bowl following the 2012 season and getting back to the NFC championship game the following year, Kaepernicks play has regressed.dddddddddddde ended up losing his starting job to Gabbert midway through last season and then underwent three operations in the offseason on his non-throwing shoulder, right thumb and left knee. He couldnt participate in the offseason program and lost weight during his rehabilitation.Kaepernick then missed nearly two weeks of training camp with a tired shoulder and was ineffective in his first appearance of the preseason last Friday night against Green Bay.Kaepernicks protest has drawn reaction from around the world from athletes, politicians and others. Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown, a civil rights activist during his career, told NFL Network that Kaepernick makes all the sense in the world and that he stands behind him 100 percent.But Brown also said he would not choose to protest in this manner.Now if you ask me, `Would I do that? No I wont, because I see it a little differently, he said. Im an American citizen, I pay my taxes, I want my equal rights but this is my country, and consequently I dont want to open up for ISIS or anybody that will take away what weve already gained.Hall of Fame basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, another activist from the 1960s, said it is more concerning that the country still faces many of the same issues that athletes like himself, Brown, boxer Muhammad Ali, and Olympic sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos protested nearly a half-century ago.What should horrify Americans is not Kaepernicks choice to remain seated during the national anthem, but that nearly 50 years after Ali was banned from boxing for his stance and Tommie Smith and John Carloss raised fists caused public ostracization and numerous death threats, we still need to call attention to the same racial inequities, Abdul-Jabbar wrote in the Washington Post on Tuesday. Failure to fix this problem is whats really un-American here.Game notes The Niners placed WE Bruce Ellington on IR with a hamstring injury and released LB Jason Fanaika to get down to the 75-man roster limit.---Online:AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL ' ' '