Light banter on Twitter between India offie and ex-SA batsman Gibbs turns sour when Ashwin brings up Proteas' tainted 2000 match-fixing scandal, but later deletes tweet
Ravichandran Ashwin
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Team India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and former South Africa batsman Herschelle Gibbs were involved in a Twitter spat yesterday where Ashwin could not stop himself from taking a match fixing jibe at Gibbs. It all began when the Tamil Nadu tweaker tweeted about his new running shoes. Gibbs responded by tweeting: "Hopefully you will be able to run a bit faster now Ashwin."
Herschelle Gibbs
Ashwin is not in India's limited overs squad which is in South Africa. Reacting sharply to the reply from the South African, Ashwin came out with a fiery 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," he tweeted.
A screenshot of R Ashwin's tweet. Courtesy/ Twitter
Gibbs was fined and suspended by Cricket South Africa after admitting his role in a match fixing scandal in 2000. Caught off guard with not much to say, Gibbs 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.
Ashwin tried to diffuse the situation and said 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," Ashwin tweeted.
Ashwin then pulled down the tweet where he commented about Gibbs' chequered history and issued a clarification as well. "What's sensitive to me isn't to someone else, and what's sensitive to you isn't to me. I want to respect my family of fans and hence pulled the tweet down, and now entertainment over for all my haters. See you later," he wrote.
The big match fixing row
On April 7, 2000, Delhi police charged late SA captain Hansie Cronje with fixing the ODI series against India in March. Herschelle Gibbs, Pieter Strydom and Nicky Boje were also caught. While Cronje first denied the allegations, he owed up to his misdeeds. South Africa launched the King Commission where Cronje's teammates testified against their skipper, who admitted taking large sums of money and asking teammates to under-perform. Cronje was banned for life. Gibbs confessed he had accepted an offer from his former captain to make less than 20 runs in an ODI in India earlier in the year in exchange for $15,000.
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