Eranga Jayawardena/AP
Former Zimbabwe allrounder and coach Heath Streak has died aged 49 after a long battle with cancer.
Less than two weeks after his passing was prematurely reported by media outlets around the world, former Zimbabwe cricket captain Heath Streak has died aged 49.
Streak’s wife Nadine confirmed the cricketing great’s death from cancer in a social media post, saying he passed away in the early hours of Sunday morning.
She described him as the “greatest love of my life” and said he had died while surrounded by family, including their four children.
“He was covered in love and peace and did not walk off the Park alone. Our souls are joined for eternity Streaky. Till I hold you again,” she wrote on Facebook, alongside a broken heart emoji.
The fast bowler was a star performer for a side which regularly punched above their weight in international cricket in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Streak played 65 tests and 189 ODIs for Zimbabwe, ending as their all-time leading wicket taker in tests with 216 wickets, and in ODIs with 239 scalps.
He was the first – and currently the only – Zimbabwean to have completed the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in tests, and also the 2000 runs/200 wickets double in ODIs.
Streak was hospitalised in South Africa in May with advanced colon and liver cancer and had been receiving specialist treatment at a Johannesburg.
In 2001, he famously led Zimbabwe to a 2-1 series win over New Zealand with a match-winning 79 from 67 balls in the third ODI at Eden Park, scoring the nation’s first overseas series win.
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Heath Streak and Fidel Edwards of Leo Lions celebrate the wicket of Brad Hodge in Dubai in 2016.
Streak was first appointed the Zimbabwe captain in 2000, but tension with the board over pay and quotas took its toll, leading to his resignation. He was reappointed in 2002, but the stresses that came with the job again wore him down.
He retired from international cricket in 2005 and went on to coach Zimbabwe on two occasions, as well as taking on roles with Bangladesh and the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL.
However, Streak was banned from the sport for eight years in 2021 for breaching cricket’s anti-corruption code.
