Is Cricket no longer a gentlemens game?

Cricket history is filled with incidents of brutality and chicanery on the field, and
malice off it. W.G. Grace, the games first superstar, was a practitioner of the
most devious sportsmanship. Yes, the game was once dominated by the educated
elite gentility, but they rarely played gently.
Why is cricket referred to as a gentlemans game? When you think of the phrase so
often used to describe the sport, the image that crops up is of mild-mannered men in
white flannels with their shirts tucked in and their hair parted neatly. Maybe a pat on
the back, a gentle handshake or a shared joke while walking back to the pavilion with
opponents at the end of a session. A game that supposedly segregates the classy from
the crude, the boorish from the benign.
Cricket is often regarded as unique compared to other sports because aside from the
laws of the game, players are expected to abide by the spirit of the game. So what
constitutes this intangible spirit?
Walking when you know youve knicked a delivery even if the umpire hasnt
pronounced you out, not claiming a catch that was grassed, abstaining from an lbw
appeal when you know there was an inside edge, refraining from abuse of an
opponent are just some of actions used to describe crickets indefinable attribute.
Common agreement seems to be that the term was associated with the game since
the time English aristocrats began playing it. They determined that the game would
be played in 'a gentlemanly manner'. The term immediately lends itself to nostalgia
and the reminiscing of a time when things moved at a slower pace and the world was
captured in black and white. But with phases like bodyline, was the sport ever really
genial?
The concept of spirit of the game is one that has always lent itself to heavy debate
what with it having no exact defining line. There have been several instances when
the term has clashed with the defined rules of the sport.
All the young kids glued to their TV sets during that IPL game now unfortunately
know that the penalty for using intimidation on the cricket field is a mere warning.
Its no surprise then that the next generations heroes are the aggressive young guns
who dont think twice before using their clout or showing the middle finger.
Can the authorities step in and take a stringent stand that could act as a deterrent?
The games well-wishers would surely hope so, for otherwise its just not cricket.