There are two things. In most professional sports, you take any favorable decision you get no matter what and you try to fake yourself into getting that decision (e.g, soccer when people fall down, in football when they try to get away with a penalty, etc). But it irks me when cricketers pretend to uphold something more than the spirit of the game, and then do stuff like that anyway. You can't be holier than thou about it if you do it yourself.
On the Indian side, Sreesanth deliberate overstepping against England was atrocious and should have earned an immediate ban. Dhoni claiming bumped catches also comes to mind - and I've seen him do it twice. On the Australian side, we have the gold standard bumpcatcher in Clarke. So every team does it, but they all pretend to play the game 'hard but fair'. Well, at least one part of it is right. I'd be happy if they removed all this spirit crap from the game and acted like professionals sportsmen that would do anything to win (including cheat, if and when they get away with it), as they clearly do. It hasn't been a gentleman's game for half a century - and probably a bit longer than that.
Sledging is another one of those things. I used to think anything should go, and if you can't take it - get the hell out. But the problem is the players are patently not going to police themselves, and then they are going to complain when someone (to them) crosses a line...so record everything and broadcast it live. When Bhajji, or whichever idiot of the day starts losing endorsement deals because now everyone can clearly see their IQ, maybe that'll be the incentive to stop. I always laugh when people sledge in cricket because if you tried that same sort of **** in the NFL, talking about someone's mother, you'd get your knees blown the next play. If you want to talk crap, be a man and start a fight. It's cowardice to talk crap when you know the batsman won't take a stump and stick it up your behind. But, in the end, it works out best for me (a spectator) because for once I can focus on the game and not what Idiot A said to Moron B.