At a time when the world’s rich cricket boards are incomes thousands and thousands from sponsorship and broadcast rights, Zimbabwe participant Ryan Burl has highlighted the plight of his nation’s cricketers, who can’t even afford respectable footwear for their matches.
The 27-year-old Burl, a left-handed middle-order batsman who has performed three Tests, 18 ODIs and 25 T20Is, on Saturday tweeted a picture of his ripped shoe, a glue stick and a few instruments to repair it.
He wrote, “Any chance we can get a sponsor so we don’t have to glue our shoes back after every series.”
Any likelihood we are able to get a sponsor so we don’t have to attach our footwear again after each sequence @newbalance @NewBalance_SA @NBCricket @ICAssociation pic.twitter.com/HH1hxzPC0m
— Ryan Burl (@ryanburl3) May 22, 2021
Zimbwabe, who’ve seen gifted cricketers similar to Alistair Campbell, Heath Streak, Andy and Grant Flower, Tatenda Taibu, Henry Olonga and Neil Johnson, amongst others play for the nation, have seen the requirements plummet of late.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) had suspended the nation’s cricket board in 2019 because of authorities interference and disallowed them from competing within the T20 World Cup Qualifiers later that 12 months.
However, Zimbabwe had been reinstated in October, however since then most of their excursions have gotten cancelled as a result of Covid-19 pandemic, together with the one the place India had been scheduled to go to the nation for a limited-overs sequence in August 2020.
The Babar Azam-led Pakistan had toured Zimbabwe in April-May this 12 months, making a clear sweep of the two-Test sequence and profitable the T20I sequence 2-1.
Burl’s tweet has gone viral with a number of cricket lovers highlighting the inequality amongst cricket-playing nations.
“Surely these pathetic situations, this inequality of capital distribution is going to ruin the scope and popularity of the cricket. @ICC is equally responsible for these situations,” wrote a cricket fan.
