LOL, weren't NZ awarded some big "Spirit of Cricket" last year?
I agree with much of what Jono has said in this thread. The "spirit of cricket", or good sportsmanship, or whatever you want to call it, isn't dead as long as we see examples of it, and we obviously still praise those situations when they occur. Yes, professionalism and the fact that people's careers depend on such decisions has probably reduced it's occurrence (or rather, shifted the parameters of what we might consider fair), but it hasn't made it obsolete, either. I think it's still the case that appealing for a handling the ball dismissal when a batsman bends down and picks up a ball to toss it to a fielder (and batsmen do this fairly often) will still get you booed and criticised as unsporting by the majority of cricket followers.
Regarding this particular situation, I'm not really convinced that NZ acted egregiously. Apart from the fact that I'm not sure that McCullum actually saw Murali grounding his bat and leaving, as the ball was returned, I think it can be argued that Murali's mistake was egregious in of itself, and not what one would regard as something that might occur in any match. If a junior cricketer had walked down the pitch like that when the ball was live and being returned to the keeper, you'd probably view it as a lesson that had to be learned. So it's hard to argue that
more leniency should be extended (by the opposition) to an experienced, international level player, although I do have some sympathy for Murali given that he clearly didn't have it in his mind to attempt a run.
(BTW, I personally don't think that a player injuring himself going for a run, as some have suggested, is analogous to what happened here, because your
intention in that case would be to go for a run - so if you fall over and don't make it, that's clearly tough. Murali obviousy didn't intend to run in this instance, his only intent was to congratulate Sangakkara.)
Incidentally, a funny thing happened today during the Perth test between Australia and England, where Kevin Pietersen also walked out of his crease while the ball was being returned. And Gilchrist in response rolled the ball at the stumps, in an attempt to run him out - but he missed. Nobody thought anything of it really - it may be that the personality of the players concerned plays it's part in how people judge such an incident.