India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and former South African batsman Herschelle Gibbs were involved in a social media war of words on Monday after Ashwin brought up the latter’s match-fixing ban in a Twitter joke that went horribly wrong.
Ashwin sent out a promotional tweet regarding his new Nike cricket shoes, calling them the “best running shoes” he’s used, to which Gibbs jokingly responded that the shoes should help the Indian, a notoriously poor runner between the wickets, run faster.
Hopefully you will be able to run a bit faster now ashwin 😂
— Herschelle Gibbs (@hershybru) February 19, 2018
The off-spinner failed to see the funny side, however, swiftly responding, “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.”
— NotoriousCYP (@NotoriousCYP) February 19, 2018
Ashwin was referring to the infamous 2000 Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal, in which Gibbs received a six-month ban for his involvement.
Gibbs deftly moved away, saying, “Can’t take a joke I see”, but not before Ashwin’s reply had gone viral.
The India spinner later took down that tweet amid heavy backlash, although he maintained that he, too, was joking.
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.😂 https://t.co/Z7YdXQnxeD
— Ashwin Ravichandran (@ashwinravi99) February 19, 2018
Just another day in the wonderfully weird world of cricket.
