Who wants to be a bowler in cricket?

Bowling in cricket seems to be the toughest job in the universe after the recently concluded series between India and Australia.

3274 runs,107 sixes and 345 fours in total for the series looks like the stats for a calendar year by some team collectively,these staggering stats have opened the debate against these rules in the cricketing fraternity.   Cricket is moving towards batsmen and if this goes on no body would like to be a bowler,adding to the misery are new Icc rules The bowling Power Play will have to be completed before the 40th over and more than four fielders will not be allowed outside the 30-yard circle at any stage of the innings. All the ODI's played post-ICC new rules have witnessed low-scoring matches with one extra fielder have to be inside the 30-yard circle throughout the match.  What has changed since the 90's ? It's not like the Chinnaswamy has magically gotten smaller all of a sudden. India has always produced flat decks for ODIs. So what has really brought about this change in batting results? The answer is multi-faceted:   The IPL and the freedom of strokeplay that it demands. James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell, Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Steve Smith, Shaun Marsh are all IPL veterans.    Batsmen are much much stronger these days e.g: M.S. Dhoni is easily as powerful as Sir Vivian Richards was in his pomp. Bowlers have not yet evolved to counter the above two points. People talk about Marshall,McGrath, Ambrose, Akram,Waqar and Lillee but even those gentlemen would've struggled against this new breed of champion batsmen.   We have complaints with the new format but are we not been following SA Vs PAK? Australia also got the same field placements, they also went through the same format. If Australia did not win, we have an issue with that? They lost it fair and square. Once the batsmen is set there is nothing you can do, but wait till he makes a mistake. No one complains when teams play in Australia, where the grounds are bigger. No one complains to ICC that the ground is big. Every team plays, so what's different here. Indians played on the same ground so did Australia, they also got the same ground. If they could not make use of the conditions is that India's fault, ICC's fault or BCCI's fault? What's wrong with the dead/flat pitches? Other teams too play in AUS where they do not prepare dead/flat pitches, they prepare green top pitches where AUS excel. Shouldn't they prepare dead/flat pitches? Does India complain at that time and don't they lose those matches.

Fixed at the "SPOT"

The romantic in us would believe there is no spot fixing. But human greed knows no boundaries, is how Harsha Bhogle summed up the spot-fixing episode in which former Pakistan captain Salman Butt and seam bowler Mohammad Asif were found guilty.

and often raised its head, only for us to turn our faces. But the way spot-fixing has come to light and the way it has been dealt, it speaks a lot about the authorities that we don’t really want a scripted game.

The jury in the spot-fixing trial has found Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif guilty, by a unanimous verdict, on the charge of ‘conspiracy to cheat’ and on the count of ‘conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments’. Salman and Asif will be sentenced in the coming week.

On a historic day for cricket, the world also learnt that Mohammad Amir, the teenage Pakistani fast bowler, had pleaded guilty to the same two charges before the trial began; he will now be given a “Newton Hearing” to decide the quantum of punishment, during which there will be no jury officially present, although they have been given permission to sit in and watch if they wish.

There were no mixed reactions in the cricket fraternity. Experts like Rameez raja and Aamir Sohail termed it as a “LESSON’” for the coming cricketers.

Mean while there is no relief for teenager as well, Pakistan fast-bowler Mohammad Amir was involved in a conspiracy to fix elements of the Oval Test match as well as the notorious Lord’s Test, the spot-fixing officials said.
Appearing in court alongside former team-mates Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif for the first time since he pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy relating to the Lord’s Test, Amir was told by Cooke that he did not accept the basis of his plea. Amir’s guilty plea only refers to the Lord’s Test, where he bowled two huge no-balls exactly as conspirator Mazhar Majeed predicted in covertly recorded conversations with undercover journalists from the News of the World.

But at the start of a sentencing hearing scheduled for two days Mr. Justice Cooke said that he could not accept that plea having heard evidences during the trial of Butt and Asif that Amir was involved in discussions about fixing the Oval Test.

Specifically the court heard evidence of text messages and calls between Amir and Majeed and suspected fixers in Pakistan referencing the Oval Test. In one message sent to bookie following his arrest, Amir wrote to Mazhar to delete his calls which he made to his cell because ICC has taken his cellphone.

The judge also said he was troubled by Amir’s claim that he had become involved only because he had come under pressure that could have negatively impacted on his career. Amir does not say who pressurized him, but the judge made it clear he believes he was referring to Butt and Asif, a fact that could negatively impact on Butt in particular. He told the officials that he was under pressure.

The judge’s concern over the plea arises from inconsistency between the charges leveled at all three players, which cover a conspiracy in the period of both the Oval and Lord’s Test, and the plea agreed with the Crown Prosecution Service, which is restricted to Lord’s.

Swann on Salman Butt:

The way Salman Butt carried himself rubbed me up the wrong way. Aloof and arrogant are the best descriptions of him. What made my dismissal of him in the Lord’s Test all the more satisfying was that he pompously refused to leave the field despite being bowled. We knew the TV replays would confirm his fate and I really enjoyed standing in our huddle taking the Mickey out of him.