Heath Streak is still alive! Ex-Zimbabwe pacer Olonga deletes his tweet

Zimbabwe legend Heath Streak is still alive. The rumours of his demise was doing the rounds on social media platform X, formerly Twitter since morning (August 23). Former Zimbabwe pacer Henry Olonga was the first to tweet about Streak's demise, which turned out to be wrong. He later deleted his tweet.

Henry Olonga tweet on Heath Streak demise. Photo: Screenshot from Olonga tweet

Olonga later clarified with a new tweet that the Zimbabwe all-rounder is still alive.

"I can confirm that rumours of the demise of Heath Streak have been greatly exaggerated.  I just heard from him. The third umpire has called him back. He is very much alive folks," Olonga wrote in a fresh tweet.

Streak is undergoing treatment for colon and liver cancer in South Africa.

Who is Henry Olonga?

Olonga is etched in the memory of Indian fans as the bowler who was thrashed by Sachin Tendulkar in Sharjah. 

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Heath Streak's career as a cricketer and coach

Streak led Zimbabwe between 2000 and 2004. He played 65 Test and 189 ODIs for his country. 

He is the only player from Zimbabwe to take 100 Test wickets. 

The former Zimbabwe all-rounder made his international debut in 1993. He went wicketless in his debut Test match but claimed eight wickets in his second Test at Rawalpindi. 

He retired in 2005 and took the English county club Warwickshire's captaincy for a two-year contract in 2006. However, his tenure was cut short due to personal form issues. 

Streak joined the rebel league Indian Cricket League (ICL) in 2007. 

Heath Streak stats

Batting Career Summary
Format	Matches	Innings	NO	Runs	HS	Avg	SR	100	200	50	4s	6s
Test	65	107	18	1990	127	22.36	37.06	1	0	11	212	12
ODI	189	159	55	2943	79	28.3	73.43	0	0	13	203	48
Bowling Career Summary

Fomat Matches Innings Balls Runs Wkts BBI BBM Econ Avg SR 5W 10W Test 65 102 13559 6079 216 6 for 73 9 for 72 2.7 28.1 62.8 7 0 ODI 189 185 9468 7129 239 5 for 32 5 for 32 4.5 29.8 39.6 1 0 Source: cricbuzz

Heath Streak records

Most wickets (82) on a single ground, Harare Sports Club.

Only Zimbabwean player to score 1000-plus runs and 100 wickets in Tests.

2943: 4th player with the most runs in ODIs without scoring a century. His highest score in ODI is 79 not out.

Heath Streak's coaching career

After his cricketing career, Streak took up various coaching jobs. He coached national teams of Zimbabwe, Scotland, Bangladesh, and franchisees, Gujarat Lions and Kolkata Knight Riders, of the Indian Premier League.

Heath Streak controversy

Steak was appointed as Zimbabwe's head coach in 2016. 

Before the 2019 World Cup qualifiers, Streak and his coaching staff took a pay cut to ensure players got their full wages.

However, Zimbabwe failed to qualify for the 2019 World Cup, and thus Streak was sacked by the Zimbabwe cricket board.

In 2021, ICC banned Heath Streak from all forms of international cricket for eight years after he was found on the wrong side in a match-fixing scandal.

According to a Reuters report, the games under scanner included several international matches in 2018 as well as matches in T20 leagues in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. 

Streak admitted five breaches of ICC's anti-corruption code and agreed with the sanction.