Sports (common Wealth) Heath Streak, the former Zimbabwe cricket captain an all the time excellent all-rounder died of cancer at the age of 49. He was being treated in Johannesburg for colon and liver cancer, according to international media. Between 1993 and 2005, Streak was the all-time leading Test wicket-taker for his country, taking 216 wickets and hitting 1,990 runs in 65 Tests.
In an emotional Facebook post announcing his passing, his wife Nadine paid tribute to her late husband.
“The greatest love of my life and the father of my lovely children was brought to be with the Angels in the early hours of this morning, Sunday, September 3rd, 2023, from his house where he desired to spend his final days surrounded by his family and closest loved ones” , she said.
He was engulfed in love and calm, and he did not leave the park alone. Streaky, our souls are forever linked. In the early hours of today morning, September 3rd, 2023, the greatest love of my life and the father of my children.
Streak “touched lives within the sport and beyond,” Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani said. This is a very sad day for Zimbabwe and for cricket as we grieve the loss of a true great of our beautiful game while also celebrating the magnificence of what Heath gave us, Mr Mukuhlani said in a statement.
He played with passion and spirit, and he was nothing short of an amazing figure who raised our flag high and affected lives both within and outside of sports. After retiring, Streak became Zimbabwe’s bowling coach, followed by stints with Bangladesh and the Kolkata Knight Riders, who won the Indian Premier League twice.
He returned to Zimbabwe as coach in 2016, but stepped down after his team failed to qualify for the 2019 World Cup. Streak was banned from cricket for eight years in 2021 after admitting to violating the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption code. He accepted “full responsibility” for his acts, but said he was never involved in any match-fixing attempts.
Former Zimbabwean Test cricketer Henry Olonga has provided a cautionary note about the dangers of social media after recently posting a passionate obituary for his former teammate Heath Streak, only to receive a message back from Streak hours later.
Olonga, who currently lives in Adelaide, played 30 Test matches for his country before fleeing in protest of its regime. He claimed to have recently seen on a Zimbabwean athletic community on Facebook that Streak, who had been battling cancer, had died.
Olonga, who was deeply devastated by the news, said he sought confirmation from other former players as well as Streak’s family. Olonga told ABC Radio Adelaide, “I’d only been in contact with Heath on Monday, and we’d exchanged some voice notes on WhatsApp.” He’s actually extremely ill right now, facing stage four cancer.
Streak, an all-rounder, was a staple of Zimbabwean cricket in the 1990s and early 2000s, appearing in 65 Tests and captaining his country in three World Cups.
While Olonga, who has garnered recognition in Australia as a singer, stunning fans as a competitor on The Voice in 2019, said he received no messages from Streak’s phone or from Streak’s relatives. But, in the interim, he added, he had been informed by a former teammate that Streak had died, and a tribute from one of Streak’s friends had also appeared online.
I thought that was dreadful, and all of the sensations we had last year when Symonds, Marsh, and Warnie died came rushing back to him, he added. ‘It’s certainly official now, obtaining confirmation from three sources,’ I reasoned, so I posted my own tribute, a few images… and reminisced about some of our best team memories.
“At 2 p.m., I received a message from Heath saying, ‘I’m very much alive – please retract your story,'” Olonga explained.
