Ravichandran Ashwin's Bonhomie With Herschelle Gibbs After Fixing Jibe

Days after Ravichandran Ashwin made a fixing jibe at Herschelle Gibbs, the Indian spinner on Friday extended birthday greetings to former South Africa cricketer. With the tweet, it appears that both have buried the hatchet and moved on. Ashwin posted a sweet birthday message for Gibbs on his official Twitter account. "Many more happy returns of the day to @hershybru, have a good one", Ashwin had messaged.

Many more happy returns of the day to @hershybru , have a good one.

— Ashwin Ravichandran (@ashwinravi99) February 23, 2018

Gibbs was quick to respond to Ashwin's message.

Thanks bud have a good day

— Herschelle Gibbs (@hershybru) February 23, 2018

The two were involved in a spat after Ashwin had made a veiled attack on Gibbs for his alleged involvement in the match-fixing scam in 2000.

On Monday, it had all began with a tweet that Ashwin posted about a sports shoe brand. It was then that Gibbs jokingly replied on his post saying that those shoes would help him run a bit faster.

However, Gibbs' reply didn't go down well with the Indian spinner and he made a veiled attack on the former Proteas cricketer's infamous match-fixing saga in 2000, later deleting the 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," Ashwin had replied.

In order to not escalate the matter further, Ashwin subsequently tried to play it down by inviting Gibbs for a dinner.

"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 said.

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

In 2000, after South Africa had toured India the same year, Delhi Police had on April 7charged Hansie Cronje for fixing his team's ODIs for money. Initially, Cronje denied the allegations but on April 11, he confessed to his involvement in the activities and later on June 8, Gibbs admitted on accepting an offer from his captain Cronje to make less than 20 runs in a match in return of $15,000.

It is said that it was the fourth ODI in which Gibbs was asked to under-perform but he went on to make 72 and still they lost that match. After this, Gibbs was banned for the remaining year from international cricket.