The jury in the spot fixing case has currently retired to consider its verdict, leaving many Pakistan fans wondering about the nature of any possible sentence should Salman Butt and Mohammed Asif be found guilty.

The two players in court are facing charges of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments and conspiracy to cheat. Mohammed Amir and agent Mazhar Majeed had themselves earlier this year pleaded guilty to the charges.

Obtaining and accepting corrupt payments is an offence contrary to section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906. It carries a maximum sentence of seven years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. Cheating is an offence contrary to section 42 of the Gambling Act 2005. It carries a maximum sentence of two years' imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.

The maximum sentence for the above two offences does not only apply to the offence itself, but also to the conspiracy to commit such an offence, as is alleged in the case of Butt and Asif. So which kind of sentence are the players likely to receive?

One more interesting fact about Azhar Ali is that he has never played a test match in his home ground. He has played 6 in England, 2 in Dubai, 2 in Abu Dhabi, 2 in West Indies, 2 in New Zealand and 1 in Zimbabwe. He started his career against AUSTRALIA, where he scored 42 runs in the second innings. On that day, test cricket found his future. 26 year-old Azhar Ali, has now a batting average of 39.75. He has scored his first test century today. And has proved his mettle.

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The Judge at the spot-fixing trial today sent the jury out today to consider their verdict. This follows three weeks full of questions and answers.

The judge finished summing up the case to the jury and has told them he needs a unanimous decision.

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The rise of several T20 tournaments coupled with several other factors has resulted in the declining popularity of the longer formats especially ODIs.Audiences for one day cricket slumped by 17 per cent during 2009-10.A match between Australia and the West Indies in 2010 returned the lowest audience seen for a day-night game in 5 years, with an audience of just 625,000

In the past five years, audiences for the one-day games have been in a slow downward spiral, losing between 5 and 6 per cent each year from an average of 1.18 million in 2005, 

There is a plenty of evidence which highlight the fact that ODIs have lost a good number of viewers/spectators

Probably these are some reasons which prompted the ICC to make a few changes in the ODI format. ICC's new ODI rules came into effect from October 1, 2011, . Here's a crisp segmentation of the set of new rules: what each rule actually means, ICC’s intention behind these rules , and how these rules are likely to affect ODI cricket...

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