One, a hot-shot off-spinning all-rounder and the other, an aggressive but controversial former batsman who could strike the ball out of the park in his heyday. And the two duelled it out…not on the cricketing arena but on social media.
Reacting to a footwear brand that Ashwin endorsed on Monday, former South African opener Herschelle Gibbs tweeted, “Hopefully you will be able to run faster now Ashwin.”
Gibbs claimed it was a joke but the tweet appeared to have touched a raw nerve in Ashwin attempting a comeback in the shorter formats where fielding is a critical element.
Ashwin replied, “Surely not as fast as you did mate, unfortunately I was not as blessed as you were. But I was blessed with a wonderfully ethical mind not to fix games that put food on my plate.”
Ashwin appeared to be pointing at the match-fixing scandal of 1999-2000 in which Gibbs was involved.
The exchange ended when Ashwin finally deleted the tweets respecting his “family of fans”.
