A Gentleman's Game?

It is supposedly said that cricket is a gentleman's game.
Well, perhaps it was so in the past, but it certainly is not now. (No, I'm not talking about the sexism in the statement, even though that is a fairly valid point)

Let me describe a few recent on field incidents.

1. Muralitharan's run-out
Sangakkara took a run to get his hundred and Murali ran as the non-striker. As Sangakkara raised his bat to the crowds to celebrate his hundred, Murali grounds his bat, then turns around to congratulate his team-mate. He doesn't realise that the ball isn't dead yet, and so, when the NZ keeper gets the ball, he promptly runs Murali out. AND THE UMPIRE GIVES IT OUT!! Hello, he grounded his bat remember? Once he's grounded it, isn't the ball supposed to be declared dead? And the NZ team didn't care that he was congratulating his team-mate, they just run him out. Whatever happened to gentlemanliness?

2. Geraint Jones's run out
Highly similar to Murali's, just that this time, he was a little out of his crease as Shane Warne appealed for an LBW decision aganist him, and in the meantime, Ponting run him out by throwing the ball at the stumps. ?!?!
Honestly. He was waiting for the umpire's decision! I felt so sad for him.

3. Andre Nel's sledging
If you're Indian and you hate Nel for his scathing remarks and sledging of the Indian players during play, it's not so ok anymore. Because if it wasn't for his sledging, we would never have seen Sreesanth's hilariously entertaining display of his dancing skills. But even then, Nel does go overboard with what he says sometimes. He's a lot worse when he plays in India against India because the crowd sledges him back and gets his blood boiling. :P And he actually shouts at the crowd! Trust me, I've been there, done that.

There you go, those are just a select few.
Just because the players don't start headbutting each other doesn't exactly mean it's a gentleman's game.

Oh and before I go, the video of the above mentioned Murali run out.