Michael Vaughan and Adam Gilchrist renewed their Ashes rivalry on Twitter, sparring over a pair of controversial landmark-denying wide balls, one past and one present.

Andrew Tye inadvertently sparked the beef, with his wide in a Big Bash League playoff game denying James Vince, who, like Vaughan, is part of the Phoenix Management Group, the chance to hit a boundary to bring up the winning runs and his century.

“No one can tell me that he didn’t mean to do that,” tweeted Vaughan. “Poor form from AJ Tye.”

No one can tell me that he didn’t mean to do that … !! Poor form from AJ Tye … https://t.co/xuIFCdRlvk

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) January 30, 2021

Reece Perry, an Australian Twitter user, responded to Vaughan, referencing an incident from his England days which bore some similarities. In the Perth Test in the 2006/07 Ashes, Gilchrist need three runs from one ball to break Viv Richards’ record for the fastest Test hundred. Matthew Hoggard bowled the ball wide, though it wasn’t called as such, seemingly in an effort to stop Gilchrist from reaching his milestone.

While Vaughan wasn’t playing in that game due to injury, Perry explained how he felt Vaughan was guilty of hypocrisy, having not criticised Hoggard for his actions, something echoed by Gilchrist.

Here, here Reece @MichaelVaughan https://t.co/yxDHtg5BCZ

— Adam Gilchrist (@gilly381) January 30, 2021

Vaughan responded to both explaining that he wasn’t playing in the Hoggard game, with England fast bowler Stuart Broad backing him up.
Vaughan also took the chance to return fire against Gilchrist, referencing his poor form in the 2005 Ashes, when the Yorkshireman led England to their first win against Australia since 1986/87. Gilchrist averaged just 22.62 in the series, with a high score of 49 not out, with four of his eight dismissals coming at the hands of Andrew Flintoff.

Nothing to do if he was playing or not, just the hypocrisy of @MichaelVaughan suggesting Andrew Tye was poor for bowling a wide to deny a 100 for Vince. Maybe he should have a look in his own backyard before throw stones elsewhere….

— Jack Cowan (@jackcowan38) January 30, 2021

Gilchrist bit back, labelling Vaughan’s comments, “sniping from the keyboard”.

I don’t think Reece suggested you were playing. Just sniping from the keyboard. Rooftop of Fred’s mouth recovered from the sunburn that day at the WACA? 🥵 https://t.co/5S8rt1aaUq

— Adam Gilchrist (@gilly381) January 30, 2021