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The contrast was unmistakable. While Surrey welcomed over 25,500 on a boisterous Friday night of the sort that has become an Oval trademark, a few thousand crammed into Old Deer Park, in Richmond, to see Middlesexs T20.Middlesexs skipper was left feeling distinctly unimpressed. Personally I dont think professional cricketers should play at club grounds, you never know what wicket you will get, Dawid Malan said. Hopefully they get to the stage where we never play Twenty20 at club grounds again.On one level this was simply the frustration of a skipper whose team had been well-beaten. Middlesex chief executive Richard Goatley explains that Malans comments were out of proportion to how he and the club feel about playing at our outgrounds.And yet there was a deeper significance nestled in Malans words. While Middlesex did a sterling job to get 4,000 people through the gates at Richmond, who palpably had a cracking time in spite of their teams defeat, should they not have been altogether more ambitions, for themselves and for domestic T20 cricket?Brendon McCullum is one of very few overseas players with the razzmatazz to attract casual cricket fans to English domestic T20 matches. His signing for Middlesex was hyped up for months. After all the excitement, McCullums T20 debut came not in front of a packed Lords crowd but in front of a couple of thousand at Merchant Taylors School.When Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of the Premier League, speaks of the leagues remarkable global success, he emphasises the need to create the best possible spectacle for TV: this is done not merely by packing teams with talent, but also by ensuring those watching see packed out grounds.Thats why some senior figures in county cricket are privately concerned that playing matches at outgrounds sends an unflattering message about the quality of English domestic T20 to supporters, broadcasters and players alike. For all the charms of Old Deer Park or Merchant Taylors School, it is impossible to imagine the Big Bash or Indian Premier League ever considering playing matches at such bucolic venues.County cricket is in an age when it needs to justify itself by generating as much money as possible: many might not like this reality, but they cannot deny it. A sold-out Middlesex T20 at Lords generates around ￡700,000; a sold-out Middlesex game at an outground garners about one-tenth as much. Over three games, the difference amounts to nearly ￡2 million: money that county cricket is not in a position to be rejecting, and could be used to sign better overseas players and invest in the grassroots game.That a contest as enthralling as Shaun Tait unfurling his slingshot action to Eoin Morgan is played in front of 4,000, with no TV cameras in view, is emblematic of the compromises inherent in English domestic T20.These are particularly acute for Middlesex, given their unusual lodger arrangement with Lords, the restrictions on the number of floodlit matches at Lords to appease the moneyed residents of St Johns Wood, and the heavy demands on the ground, which is currently being prepared for the opening Test against Pakistan.Under current arrangements, Middlesex receive a lump sum from the MCC for all the games they play at Lords. It is reasonable to assume that another couple of T20s with crowds in excess of 20,000 would be likely to increase the fee they receive. The question nobody wants to discuss in detail is quite who that switch from the outgrounds would benefit. The volume of cricket played at Lords means that a level of cricket at outgrounds is necessary and provides a great benefit to the club in terms of reaching a wider audience and getting our supporters closer to the action, says Goatley. The upshot is to drive Middlesex to schedule their home T20s across four different venues.Middlesex forever seek to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with Lords, but just occasionally tensions emerge. Lords never really felt like home, former Middlesex captain Neil Dexter said recently. When you dont own your own ground, you cant ever really call it home.The MCC has encouraged the ECB to review the best structure for domestic T20 cricket and is open to hosting more Middlesex T20s, unsurprisingly given the huge financial success they have made of the games. Thursday nights in high summer are the most lucrative matches for Lords, but whether they can host more matches then is dependent on devising a schedule that better balances the grounds hosting of Middlesex with Test matches and other marquee fixtures.Middlesex maintain they are happy with the current situation - they could hardly do otherwise - and see playing three of their seven home T20s away from Lords, as they have done in the past two seasons, as reflecting their commitment to cricket in the whole county. And yet to play so many matches away from Lords seems somehow to settle for second best from English T20 when it is palpable there is a huge market for domestic T20 games in the capital.Surrey abandoned playing T20s away from The Oval five years ago, recognising that demand was simply too great to justify taking games to venues where they could only be seen by one-fifth as many people. Their philosophy is simple: they want the biggest audience possible. It is a striking contrast that Middlesex evidently do not - or cannot - take the same view. And while counties acknowledging their responsibility to spread the game beyond their main home ground is admirable, it would surely be more prudent for counties to focus on developing the best possible product in T20 cricket, and bring four-day and 50-over cricket to outgrounds.If Malans comments were a fit of pique - Richmond had worked admirably to produce a wicket that was good enough for Glamorgan to waltz to their target of 145 with over three overs to spare - they were also a window into something much more. Not merely the parochial concerns of Middlesex, but more fundamental questions for English domestic T20 cricket.In many ways the competition is a startling success - nearly 1m people could well attend games in 2016 - and yet at times it still seems unsure exactly what it is, or wants to be: one of the leading T20 leagues in the world, or merely a jumped-up version of the old 40-over league, existing for the pleasure of existing fans rather than to engage new ones. David Robinson Jersey . Didier Drogba gave away the penalty that put Senegal one goal away from a major upset, but the veteran striker will get another chance -- probably his last -- at the World Cup after Salomon Kalous injury-time strike sealed the Ivorians place in Brazil next year. LaMarcus Aldridge Jersey . 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Uriah Hall (12-6) had one of the most memorable knockouts in UFC history -- and it happened on a reality show.Hall knocked the daylights out of Adam Cella (6-6) with a spinning hook kick on the 17th season of The Ultimate Fighter, turning the spotlight in Halls direction. Whether it was fair to his development as a fighter, it ultimately positioned Hall as a future middleweight title contender.Im over it, Hall said this week, leading up to his Saturday fight against Derek Brunson (15-3). Its like Drakes first album. Im not the same dude. Its a new era. People need to get over that kick.Forgetting is far easier said than done.?Every one of Halls fight promos predictably shows his heel colliding with Cellas temple. It is etched into the memory of any MMA regular.Yet many would agree with Hall -- he hasnt been the same. He owns a 5-4 record in the UFC. That includes a split-decision loss in the TUF season finale to Kelvin Gastelum, a sluggish split-decision loss to Rafael Natal?at UFC 187 and a one-sided defeat to prospect Robert Whittaker?in his last fight, 10 months ago at UFC 193.Hall says a combination of nagging injuries and impropriety of former friends played into the inconsistency, compromising his ability to perform.I look at it as an era where I was in a bad place in my life, he said.Hall, 32, will try to start anew against Brunson when they meet as the co-main event at UFC Fight Night 94 in Hidalgo, Texas.Im confident, Hall said. Ive trained very hard for this fight. I had a very successful camp. Ive been around really positive people. Ive gotten rid of people who are not good.Despite the disappointing losses, Hall has provided regular glimpses of his true ceiling. His spinning-back-kick-to-flying-knee finish of Gegard Mousasi?-- the only time Mousasi has been knocked out -- was a ccombination straight out of Street Fighter.dddddddddddd And in early 2015, Halls elbows nearly detached the eyebrow of Ron Stallings?in a first-round doctors stoppage.Halls next opponent, Brunson, is 6-1 in the UFC and has won four consecutive fights, the last three of which were first-round TKOs. He has flown up the rankings and, like Hall, is trying to realize title aspirations in a crowded middleweight division. The line for that belt would make any fighter wish he were at the DMV.Theres a systematic way of saying you have a number, which is ridiculous, Hall said of the rankings. I knocked out Mousasi, and Im behind him. How is that even possible?I just focus on whats important: my goal. My goal is to go out there and be the best.If Hall is to ever contend, the time might be now or never.Michael Bisping?will defend the championship at UFC 204 on Oct. 8 in a retirement match for 46-year-old Dan Henderson. Former champion Luke Rockhold?will face?Jacare Souza?in a potential title eliminator Nov. 27 in Australia.And still ahead of Hall are Gastelum and Whittaker -- not to mention former champs Chris Weidman?and Anderson Silva. Hall was scheduled to fight Silva at UFC 198, but Silva needed emergency gall bladder surgery and had to withdraw.Its a long, unlikely path, but Hall says the approach will be simple. That includes Saturday night opposite Brunson.The first thing you have to have is belief, Hall said. [I want to] beat up this dude, first of all, then knock out Luke Rockhold after, if I get the chance. I just have to take out whoever is in front of me and go for the strap. You just have to play the game.[Brunson] is just there. Hes a stepping stone. Thats it. ' ' '