‘They kept me waiting for 3 weeks’: Controversy erupts over Herschelle Gibbs’ commentary gig

Gibbs said that him being part of the Lanka Premier League’s commentary panel was ‘news to him,’ but the matter took a new turn when a post surfaced which showed the former SA batsman giving a ‘thumbs up’ to the development.

Former South Africa batsman Herschelle Gibbs has revealed how his scheduled commentary stint for the Lanka Premier League fell off track. Gibbs was named one of the six commentators designated for the inaugural edition of the LPL but the former SA batsman, on social media, revealed that the development was in fact ‘news to him’.

FIle image of Herschelle Gibbs (Getty Images)

But the matter took a whole different twist when an earlier post surfaced on Instagram, which showed Gibbs giving a ‘thumbs up’ emoji to the news. The post suggested that Gibbs, along with Mike Haysman, Roshan Abeysinghe, Russel Arnold, Aamir Sohail and Daren Ganga were chosen to perform commentary duties for the event which starts later this month and that the former batsman was in fact aware of it.

Gibbs replied to the post saying ‘not happening’, before clarifying the matter entirely. Gibbs, who is the only player in ODIs to hit six sixes in an over, revealed, in reply to a tweet by Sri Lanka journalist Azzam Ameen, that the deal fell through. “So isn’t it wrong to say it’s News for you now, when you had retweeted this 3 days ago and confirmed in Instagram that you are coming to SL,” Ameen had tweeted to Gibbs’ ‘not happening’ remark.

Gibbs replied: ‘”They kept me waiting 3 weeks only to tell me this morn it’s not gonna happen… they shouldn’t have advertised it in the first place. there you go!”

Colombo will take on Kandy in the opening match of the Lanka Premier League at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Hambantota on November 26. The two semi-finals will be played on December 13 and 14, followed by the final on December 16.