The poor, belittled bowler

South Africa's remarkable win against Australia on Sunday has caused an understandable stir among the cricket world, media, former players and so on. Barry Richards, the former South Africa batsman, was at the game and commentating on it. Indeed, he even gave a speech at a function during the innings break. When asked "Would South Africa reach 435?" he replied "No! Not a chance!" Richards is one of millions chomping on their hats...including me.

Anyway, Richards made some interesting comments after the run-blitz:

"There is such a propensity for hitting boundaries that bowlers have been taken out of game," Richards is quoted as saying by The Courier-Mail. "It will only be six months and we'll see 1000 runs scored in a one-day game. The skill has been taken out of cricket. As a cricket person, it is very boring because the bowlers have no chance. All the rule changes, the power plays and things, have just made things so much in favour of batsmen.

"The small grounds are like saying to Tiger Woods to play on a 4000m course; he might keep shooting 49 but what does it really mean?" he continued. "Cricket is the only game that has been made smaller in the past 100 years. It's all in the name of commercialism.

"Why would you want to be a bowler? For a start the ball doesn't swing. Batsmen are just hitting the ball straight. The International Cricket Council needs to look at things because this is ruining cricket."

Although I was getting caught up in the moment - it was an amazing day - I can't help but agree with Bazza on this. It's a batsman's game, and the poor bowler has a tough time. Who'd be a bowler (if you had the choice) nowadays? That's a ridiculous and pointless question, so I'll ask another; was this really the greatest one-dayer, or does it indicate cricket's now gluttonous need for commercialism and "whizz bang whallop" entertainment?

Will Luke writes for Cricinfo.com and edits The Corridor of Uncertainty