Former Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak has died from cancer at the age of 49 on Tuesday. Streak had represented Zimbabwe in 65 Tests and played 189 ODIs, and retired as the leading wicket-taker for the country in Tests with 216 wickets, and in ODIs with 239 scalps.
Streak was hospitalised in May after going down with colon and liver cancer. Streak was part of Zimbabwe’s golden generation of cricketers between 1997 to 2002. In a career spanning over a decade, he scored a total of 4,933 runs and claimed 455 wickets across the two formats.
“It was a pleasure playing with you. See you on the other side when my bowling spell comes to an end,” posted Streak’s former teammate and fast bowler Henry Olanga on micro-blogging platform ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter) while current Zimbaber captain also paid tribute to the one the finest allrounders the game has seen.
“Streaky. No words can explain what you and your family have done for mine and many others Our hearts our broken you leave behind a beautiful family and a legacy for us to live up to! You will b missed we love you dearly Rest in peace Streaky,” Williams posted.
Streak led Zimbabwe in the 2000s before resigning in 2004 after a clash with the board. A year later he retired from international cricket at the age of 31.
After retiring in 2005, Streak was made the bowling coach of the national team in 2009 and a year later was part of the star-studded coaching staff that included Grant Flower and former English cricketer Alan Butcher.
In 2021, Streak was found guilty of assisting a bookie in contacting players during a franchise-based league of which Streak was part and was banned from all cricketing activities for eight years for breaching the ICC’s anti-corruption policies.
He accepted the ban by the ICC but denied the match-fixing claims against him.
Streak was found to have disclosed information in relation to matches in the 2018 Tri-Series involving Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the Zimbabwe v Afghanistan series in 2018 and in domestic events such as the 2018 edition of the Indian Premier League.
After retirement, he served as the bowling coach of IPL sides Kolkata Knight Riders and the now-defunct Gujarat Lions, Bangladesh and Somerset.
