The reception he received during his first Test appearance since that fateful August day at Lord’s was certainly not love, but nor was it vitriolic or nasty. There were no boos or jeers as many thought there might be.

The crowd’s reaction as he walked out on the hallowed turf at the proclaimed Home of Cricket was as you would have anticipated for a number nine batsman. Light applause. No more, no less.

The Lord’s faithful are renowned as a polite bunch who show little interest in public and unified displays of hate or disapproval for an opposition player. It’s fair to say champagne flows more freely than insults.

Yet if there was ever a time for them to stray from the norm, it would have been yesterday, when Amir strode down the steps and onto the ground where he and two other Pakistani players - Salman Butt and Mohamad Asif - tarnished the name of cricket with their plot to bowl deliberate no-balls at pre-determined times during a Test match against the same opponents, England, six years previously.

The actions of Amir dominated the build-up to the Test series, which began on Thursday (July 13). The cricket, in the eyes of many, was secondary to the theatre his entrance onto the stage was expected to provide.

His mere presence back in the Pakistan team in the wake of his corrupt past split opinions across the cricketing fraternity. A quick scour of the British national newspapers and television coverage provided by Sky Sports showed ex-professionals on either side of the fence.

There are some that believe Amir has served his time, while others feel he should have been banned for life and banished into cricketing exile, never to return again. Both arguments made their points well.

But what some have forgotten is the most blatant fact of them all - he went to jail. He served prison time. He is now a convicted criminal.

And for what? Bowling no balls during a game of cricket. Yes, he corrupted his sport by accepting a bribe from Mazhar Majeed, who claimed to be the agent of the trio, and yes, he did so for personal financial gain.

What he and his team-mates did was plain wrong, it went against everything we believe in when it comes to sport and they unquestionably deserved to be banned from cricket by the ICC. That cannot be stressed enough. But was jail really justifiable? Did the time really fit the crime?

After all, Amir did not go to a plush minimum security prison where he could play his Playstation and enjoy unlimited hours in the yard. He was sent to Feltham Young Offenders Institution, a notoriously difficult jail in Britain which has a pained reputation and where violent crime, racism and gang warfare are common.

The very essence of his conviction came as the result of a sting operation, conducted by the now defunct News of the World, which involved the notorious “Fake Sheikh”, later named as Mazher Mahmood, a man who had previous when it came to exposing illicit behaviour among sportspeople and politicians. This is not an excuse for Amir; the trap to show he was corruptible was set and he walked straight into it.

That was the crux of the matter for some; not that he had taken the money, but that he had proved he could be manipulated by corrupt puppet-masters lurking in the dark underworld of criminal betting.

The people who go along with this view are not missing the point, but haven’t quite hit the nail on the head either as the fact remains there was no fix - one which was overlooked by the judge who delivered the verdict and ordered the three players spend time behind bars.

As Ed Hawkins rightly points out in his HawkEyeSpy blog, the market they were supposed to have corrupted didn’t exist as it was far too niche for even the dodgiest of bookmakers to take advantage of. There is no profit to be made in determining when somebody is going to bowl a no ball.

Of course, their actions had other ramifications in that runs were given away for the no balls - runs which could have proved decisive if the Test match had been close enough - and their offence was clear as day, particularly in the case of Amir’s. The two he was asked to bowl were so wayward it was embarrassing.

Compared with other offences we so often - unfortunately - see in sport nowadays, such as doping, Amir’s offence seems pretty tame, on the surface at least. Everyone will agree that a ban was necessary, but even the length of the sanction can be shown to be harsh when it is put up against that of a drugs cheat.

Amir served a five-year ban from cricket. He held his hands up, admitted the offence and accepted his punishment, whereas those who cheat to win gold medals, international acclaim and healthy payment packages out on the track, in the pool or inside the weightlifting arena, often strongly protest their innocence before inarguable, factual evidence provided by scientists proves them wrong.

Not only that, but Amir was alleged to have been offered £2,500 ($3,300/€3,000) to go through with Majeed’s demands, which seems a paltry sum at face value. Many athletes who have doped over the years have conned the system out of much more money than that - a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing last year was worth a cool $60,000 (£45,000/€54,000), for example.

That, however, is somewhat of a moot point as what Amir did was a crime - albeit a largely victimless one - and doping is not a criminal offence in the majority of nations across the world. But it still goes to show what some might perceive to be an injustice. Agreeing to bowl no balls for a minor injection to your finances could land you in jail yet cheat to win an Olympic gold and the only sanction you’ll receive is a ban from your chosen sport, one you will likely be allowed to return from, plus the eventual stripping of your medal when the relevant organisation gets round to retesting your sample.

It goes without saying that doping and spot-fixing are two different matters, but both involve corrupting sport as we know it for personal benefit. They both offer the same moral dilemma, too, about when or if athletes should be cleared to compete again in their sport if they have doped or been involved in any form of corruption.

I wrote a piece back in January admitting that the reintegration of the three Pakistani players was a reminder of the dark side of cricket, a reminder that reared its ugly head once again this week, but I can’t help but feel Amir’s appearance at Lord’s, which largely went by without incident apart from his wicket of England captain Alastair Cook, should mark the beginning of a new start and a new career for the 24-year-old.

It will be a long time before he feels the love of a cricket crowd again. It may never happen. But he should be given the chance to earn back the trust he threw away so blatantly six years ago.

Maybe one day we will get back to talking about his bowling for all the right reasons rather than the wrong ones.