Heath Streak scotches ‘death’ rumours about him

Heath Streak, a former Zimbabwe captain and one of their finest allrounders, is disappointed at rumours of his ‘death’ circulating in the social media following a post from his erstwhile teammate Henry Olonga on Wednesday.  The 49-year-old had been battling colon cancer since last May. 

“People should be a bit more careful before spreading such rumours. I am better now and recovering from cancer,” Streak told Sportstar in a telephonic interview a while back. Tributes and messages had started pouring in at the wake of Olonga’s tweet as Streak has been a popular figure in the sub-continent – having been a bowling coach of Bangladesh and was involved as a support staff in the IPL with KKR and the new defunct Gujarat Lions. 

“I am at home and obviously there’s still a bit of strain because of the treatment. But otherwise I am fine,” he was quoted by the sports magazine’s website. A private person, Streak was handed a eight-year-ban by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2021 for breaching the anti-corruption code in 2018 and does not have an account in social media – a factor which prevented him from calling out the ‘fake news.’ 

Olonga later confirmed that Streak is alive and offered an apology for his previous post. “Suddenly I get to know that people have started talking about my death, as someone shared it on social media. But that was not all correct. I am recovering and feeling a lot better…,” he said. 

Streak was the first Zimbabwe cricketer to claim 100 wickets in both Tests and ODIs. He is also the only cricketer from the country to complete the double of 100 Test wickets and 1,000 Test runs and the only one from the country to score 2,000 runs and claim 200 wickets in ODIs.