CHENNAI: R. Ashwin and Herschelle Gibbs were on Monday involved in a Twitter spat, in which the India off-spinner could not stop himself from taking a match-fixing jibe at the former South African batsman. The TN spinner, however, pulled down the tweet soon after he faced a barrage of criticism.
Promoting a shoe brand on Twitter, Ashwin gushed about its comfort and ability to make running easy and how he ‘can’t wait to flaunt them’.
Replying to Ashwin, who is not among the fastest on the field in the current Indian set up, Gibbs jokingly tweeted: “Hopefully you will be able to run a bit faster now Ashwin.”
Reacting sharply to the South African’s tweet, Ashwin came out with a loaded tweet.
“Surely not as fast you did mate, unfortunately I wasn’t as blessed as you were. But I was blessed with a wonderfully ethical mind not to fix games which put food on my plate,” Ashwin tweeted.
Gibbs was fined and suspended by Cricket South Africa after admitting his role in a match-fixing scandal in 2001. Caught off guard with not much to say, Gibbs graciously stated it was best to move on from the incident.
“Can’t take a joke I see anyway moving swiftly on,” the South African tweeted.
Realising he may have over-reacted, Ashwin went into damage control mode saying his reply was also a joke.
“I totally believed my reply was a joke too, but look how people and yourself perceived it. I am totally game for this sort of fun mate, we shall dine over this sometime,” he tweeted.
