‘A true great of our beautiful game’
Streak picked up 216 Test wickets – no other Zimbabwean has 100 – and 239 in ODIs, while he also made a Test century and sits seventh in the list of his country’s all-time Test run-scorers. He led Zimbabwe at a time of great political turmoil, and resigned in 2004 after a clash between the board and players.
Olonga was among many former cricketers to pay tribute. Kumar Sangakkara, the great Sri Lankan batsman, said: “Extremely saddened to hear of the passing of Heath Streak. Love and prayers are with Streaky’s family. So many fond memories of time spent together, none more so than him opening up his home to me to share a Potjie with his family during my first county stint at Warwickshire. A wonderful man and cricketer. Rest well Streaky.”
A statement from Zimbabwe Cricket said: “It is with deep sorrow that Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) has learnt of the sad demise of former Zimbabwe captain and coach Heath Streak after losing his battle with colon and liver cancer in the early hours of this Sunday.”
ZC Chairman Mr Tavengwa Mukuhlani hailed Streak as an “icon”.
“This is a very sad day for Zimbabwe and a sad day for cricket as we, on the one hand, mourn the demise of a true great of our beautiful game and, on the other, celebrate the greatness of what Heath gave us: he played with passion, spirit and was nothing less than an inspirational figure who raised our flag high and touched lives within the sport and beyond,” he said.
“On behalf of the ZC Board, Management, Players and Staff, I would like to pass our heartfelt condolences to Heath’s loving wife, Nadine, his family, friends and the entire cricket fraternity on the loss of the icon.”
England in black armbands
Warwickshire players wore black armbands on the opening day of their fixture against Surrey at the Kia Oval, while a minute’s silence was observed before Hampshire’s home game against Somerset. The England team also wore black armbands in Sunday’s T20 against New Zealand.
Streak’s cricketing legacy is complicated by the fact that he was banned from all involvement in the sport until 2029 after admitting various breaches of the ICC’s anti-corruption code. In 2021, he accepted five charges from his post-playing career as a coach, including with the Zimbabwe national team.
Streak was found to have shared inside information with an unnamed Indian man labelled “Mr X” before matches in international cricket, the Bangladesh Premier League, the Indian Premier League and the Afghanistan Premier League, as well as passing on the contact details for four players. He was found to have received gifts, including $35,000 in bitcoin and an iPhone. This took place between 2017 and 2018.
The poor man’s Richard Hadlee
By Scyld Berry
Heath Streak, before his troubled and corrupt retirement, was the finest bowler produced by Zimbabwe: a fast-medium operator who took 216 Test wickets at only 28 runs each in his 65 Tests.
Streak excelled on Zimbabwean pitches with their tennis-ball bounce, taking 120 Test wickets at 25.9, and abroad too, when his new-ball outswing and stamina brought him 96 wickets at 30. There was something of the young bull elephant about his strength at his peak, coupled with his own athleticism.
Streak was only 19 years old when he was given his Test debut on Zimbabwe’s tour of Pakistan. Zimbabwe were always short of resources in every department (except wicketkeeping) but it was still a recognition of the potential of the ruggedly built young bowler.
His father Dennis was a cricketer too and lived on the family farm outside Bulawayo. It was a privileged existence, whether in the era of Southern Rhodesia or Zimbabwe, and as lovely a piece of land as you will find on earth, at least when drought was not afflicting it, which was the case when he gave me a conducted tour.
It was an upbringing conducive to sporting excellence too, given plenty of space to play games on the farm. Attending Falcon College was another stepping stone towards the national side: elite schools played as much of a part in developing Test cricketers in Zimbabwe as they do in Sri Lanka, or England.
But it was no privilege to be thrown into Zimbabwe’s bowling attack on that tour of Pakistan in late 1993, just hard toil. For a 19-year-old to take eight wickets in three Tests at 35 runs each on the pitches of Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore signalled an exceptional talent.
Streak was a poor man’s Sir Richard Hadlee in effect. Hadlee led New Zealand’s bowling almost on his own in the 1980s, and Streak soon did so in the 1990s in Zimbabwe. No other bowler has taken 100 Test wickets for Zimbabwe, let alone 200. The left-arm spinner Ray Price comes next with 80, and thus it will stay for a long time to come, given the state of affairs in Zimbabwe’s economy and cricket.