Zimbabwean cricket is going through a tough phase financially and an instance of this was revealed on social media when batsman Ryan Burl made a post seeking sponsorship for the cricketing gears.
“Any chance we can get a sponsor so we don’t have to glue our shoes back after every series?,” wrote the 27-year-old on Twitter.
Later, sports brand Puma signed Burl for providing him with the equipment. “I am so proud to announce that I’ll be joining the @pumacricket team. This is all due to the help and support from the fans over the last 24 hours. I couldn’t be more grateful to you all. Thanks so much @PUMA,” Burl tweeted later.
Zimbabwe have been struggling both on and off the field for quite some time now. While they are facing financial constraints, the African country hasn’t produced any impressive performance in recent times barring the one win against Pakistan in the second T20I of the three-match series.
After levelling the series in this game, Zimbabwe lost the third and deciding match to suffer a defeat in the series. They were later thumped by Pakistan 0-2 in the two-match Test series in Harare. The visitors won both the matches by an innings.
Burl has represented Zimbabwe in three Tests, 18 ODIs and 25 T20Is. He has notched up 393 runs in the shortest format at a healthy strike-rate of 114.2 and has accumulated 660 runs across all formats.
He last played for Zimbabwe in the T20I series against Pakistan at home where the left-handed batsman only managed to score 17 runs in two innings while scalped a couple of wickets in the second encounter.