Ravichandran Ashwin on backfoot after nasty match-fixing taunt at Herschelle Gibbs

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 some new Nike running shoes on Twitter. Praising the product, Ravichandran 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.

Ravichandran 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.

R Ashwin posted this tweet in reply to Herschelle Gibbs, then later deleted it after it sparked some Twitter outrage. (Twitter)

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.

Herschelle Gibbs, to his credit, took Ashwin’s joke in good spirit. (Twitter)

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 limited-overs cricket team which is in action in South Africa. The Indian cricket team has won the ODI series 5-1 and lead the T20I series 1-0, after having lost the Test series 2-1.

Here are some of the more hilarious replies Ravichandran Ashwin got from Twitter users after his joke:

When u are on Non striker end without playing any single ball and suddenly U get run out.
O balls 0 Runs https://t.co/C0HESCOF3w

— Lol Salam (@TrollLalsalam) February 19, 2018

Man, even Rahul Dravid wasn’t this good at defense😂

— Naveen (@TheNaveenReddy) February 19, 2018

Too late to cover it up dude. Funny that you got enraged over an obvious observation 😂. Hopefully those Nike shoes somehow miraculously help you move 😝

— Aayush Jain (@aayushjtweets) February 19, 2018

It wasn't a joke ash. It was an insult. Getting too personal was uncalled for.

— Sairith Stevens (@Psyrith) February 19, 2018