Zimbabwe cricket
Zimbabwe great and former Bangladesh coach Heath Streak passes away: reports
|| CF DESK ||
Former Zimbabwe cricket captain and former Bangladesh bowling coach Heath Streak died from cancer aged 49 on Tuesday, according to several media reports.
Streak's former teammate Henry Olonga shared news of his death on the social media site X (formerly Twitter).
“It was a pleasure playing with you. See you on the other side when my bowling spell comes to an end,” Olonga tweeted.
Streak was hospitalised in South Africa in May with colon and liver cancer.
Streak played 65 Tests and 189 ODIs for Zimbabwe. He is the all-time leading wicket-taker for Zimbabwe in Test cricket with 216 wickets and in ODI cricket with 239 wickets.
RIP: Zimbabwe cricket legend Heath Streak has died aged 49. He was undergoing cancer treatment pic.twitter.com/ZPvW4lLp51
— ZimLive (@zimlive) August 22, 2023
Under Streak, Bangladesh won a Test series and two ODI series against Zimbabwe, they qualified for the knockout stage of the 2015 World Cup, and won maiden ODI series against Pakistan, India and South Africa.
In April 2021, Streak was banned from all cricketing activities for eight years for breaching the ICC’s anti-corruption policies. He was found guilty of assisting a corruptor known as “Mr X” contact players.
Streak received two bitcoins worth around US$35,000, and an iPhone as payment from the corruptor in 2017. He was accused of disclosing inside information (non-public information) about the franchise T20 leagues including Indian Premier League, Pakistan Super League and Afghanistan Premier League.
He accepted the ban by the ICC but denied the match-fixing claims against him.