At its best, as can currently be seen, cricket works wonderfully well as a contest and a test of character and can even fill in as a metaphor for Englishness.
As such, the contest could offer a test of the debate by Republican leaders over whether the party needs to adjust ideologically to expand its appeal to places like New York.
Now the case is before the United States Supreme Court, a legal contest that is a test of whether former officials of foreign governments who are accused of committing war crimes before they moved to the United States have immunity from civil lawsuits.
In some ways, the contest here is a test of Mr. Santorum's emerging appeal to voters and the Republican leadership and whether he alone can draw the working-class white voters who can tilt states into the party's column in November.
With little separating the two staunch conservatives on issues, the contest has become a test of personalities and personal connections, celebrity vs. familiarity, and the question of when compromise — like Enzi's involvement in bipartisan healthcare talks early in the Obama administration — amounts to capitulation.
The sprinter Linford Christie, contesting a positive test for steroids, withdrew his application in London yesterday for a coaching credential to the Sydney Olympics.
The two sides will contest a three-match Test series in June.
Host: My Feel-the-Bern friends may choose to make this nomination contest a progressive purity test but I recall how the GOP swift-boated a war hero into a war coward in 2004 and cannot be expected to be any nicer to the impressively sincere Sanders.
Expect some high scoring matches as players struggle to compete for 80 minutes in a contest which becomes more a test of endurance than skill.
The contest was seen as a test of Kenya's young multiparty democracy, with Mr. Kibaki, 76, representing the establishment and Mr. Odinga, 62, a new brand of politics.
