Cape Town - Oh Twitter, you never cease to disappoint.
Former Proteas batsman Herschelle Gibbs found himself the victim of an unexpected attack from Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Monday.
Ashwin, who was a part of India's Test squad in the recently-completed three-match series in South Africa, posted a picture on his Twitter page of a new pair of shoes he had been given by his sponsors.
Gibbs, always the joker, replied with what was meant to be a light-hearted jab at Ashwin.
"Hopefully you will be able to run a bit faster now Ashwin," Gibbs said, clearly as a joke.
Ashwin, though, did not take too kindly to it, and went for the jugular.
"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 responded.
Gibbs was infamously implicated in the match-fixing scandal of 2000 when the Proteas were visiting India.
Ashwin quickly deleted his Tweet after coming in for some heavy criticism, but he later claimed that he, like Gibbs, was only joking.
Hopefully you will be able to run a bit faster now ashwin ??
— Herschelle Gibbs (@hershybru) February 19, 2018
Can’t take a joke i see?? anyway moving swiftly on..
— Herschelle Gibbs (@hershybru) February 19, 2018
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
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??
— Ashwin Ravichandran (@ashwinravi99) February 19, 2018