Twitter on fire after Ashwin taunts Gibbs’ matchfixing past
MUMBAI: Ravichandran Ashwin on Monday pulled down a tweet in which he reminded former cricketer Herschelle Gibbs of his involvement in the South African match-fixing scandal of 2000, claiming that he was ‘joking from the beginning’.
It all began when Ashwin put out a promotional tweet on sports manufacturing brand Nike’s — Indian cricket team’s official clothing supplier — new running shoes on Twitter. Praising the product, Ashwin said he could not wait to ‘flaunt them’.
On Ashwin’s post, Gibbs’ replied commenting that he hopes the Indian cricketer to ‘run a bit faster now’ with those shoes on him, which sparked the ‘banter’ as both cricketers claimed. However, their conversation was perceived quite seriously on social media.
Ashwin, certainly not known for his fielding skill, shot back at the South African cricketer reminding the former cricketer of his wrong deeds for which he was even suspended and fined.
“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,” wrote Ashwin.
Seemingly taken aback by Ashwin’s jibe, all that Gibbs could say was that he was only indulging in some banter. “Can’t take a joke i see anyway moving swiftly on,” (sic) he wrote. Twitter was abuzz by then, as several fans took Ashwin’s comments seriously. On his part the Indian all-rounder clarified soon that he too was ‘joking’.
Ashwin later on removed his tweet that had caused furore, and even clarified his actions saying, “What’s sensitive to me isn’t to someone else, and what’s sensitive to you isn’t to me.”
Ashwin is currently not a member of India’s limitedovers cricket team which is in action in South Africa. The Indian team has won the ODI series 5-1 and lead the T20I series 1-0, after having lost the Tests 1-2.