Controversies
In 2001 Gibbs was fined along with several teammates for smoking marijuana during that year's tour of the West Indies.
Most notoriously, Gibbs was involved in the match fixing affair with former captain Hansie Cronje, who offered him $15,000 to score "less than 20" in the 3rd One-day International of a series. He tearfully claimed to the King Commission of inquiry into corruption in South African cricket that he did not follow through on his side of the bargain, in fact scoring a fine 74. As a result he was banned for only six months. He repeatedly refused to tour India fearing arrest and refused to even speak to Indian Police over the matter. However, Gibbs was named in the South African squad to tour India in the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, and as a result, he had to meet with Indian Police over his involvement in the match-fixing scandal.
On 15 January 2007, it was announced that Gibbs would face a disciplinary panel after making racist comments during the 1st Test against Pakistan. His words had been picked up on the stump microphone saying remarks such as "go back to the zoo" and swearing to the Pakistani players and as a result heard across the world. The comments were said to have been directed at the members of the crowd after teammate Paul Harris had been abused by them whilst fielding. The Pakistani management made an official complaint to referee Chris Broad and Gibbs was banned for two Tests.
He appealed against the ban but this was rejected by the ICC's code of conduct commissioner, Richie Benaud. The ban was, however, changed to one Test, one Twenty20 game and one ODI match - all against Pakistan.
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