Zimbabwe cricketer Ryan Burl took to Twitter to share an image of his worn-out shoes, asking sponsors to lend a helping hand. In his tweet, Burl said that they had to glue their shoes after every series with no sponsors available to fund them. "Any chance we can get a sponsor so we don't have to glue our shoes back after every series Crying face @newbalance @NewBalance_SA @NBCricket @ICAssociation," Burl tweeted. Soon after the 27-year-old batsman posted the tweet, fans came in numbers to show their support for Zimbabwe cricket.
A fan urged India, England and Australia not to postpone their tours of Zimbabwe. While another one compared the state of affairs in cricket with the Super League in football.
"@BCCI @ECB_cricket @CricketAus Please do not keep postponing your tours with Zim. It brings them much needed experience and money, with all the viewers watching. Zim sure had a great team, but even the current team has splendid potential. Let's not ignore them."
"Such a sad state of affairs concerning Zimbabwe cricket. Democratization of Cricket is necessary. We can't allow the beautiful game of cricket to continue like the Super League in football."
Recently, Zimbabwe suffered a whitewash at home to Pakistan in a two-match Test series. However, in the shortest format of the game, they managed to defend 119 by bowling out Pakistan for 99 inside 20 overs.
Zimbabwe eventually lost the three-match Twenty20 International series 2-1.
In July 2019, the International Cricket Council had suspended Zimbabwe Cricket due to political interference in their functioning.
This decision saw the funding from ICC to Zimbabwe Cricket being frozen. The suspension was later lifted in October 2019.