Former Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak texts Henry Olonga and confirms he is "very much alive"

• Heath Streak has been suffering from a long term illness and is undergoing medical treatment in Zimbabwe.
• Former teammate, Henry Olonga, has now revealed that he had managed to contact and Steak and that he is alive.
• Streak still remains the only Zimbabwe bowler with more than 100 Test and over 200 ODI wickets.

Former Zimbabwe cricketer Henry Olonga has retracted his earlier post on X (formerly Twitter) where he had claimed that his long term team mate and Zimbabwe cricketer Heath Streak had passed away. In a fresh post on X, Henry Olonga revealed that he had managed to contact Heath Streak and he was alive. The earlier tweet by Olonga went viral with global publications picking up on it.

"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 his latest tweet.

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. pic.twitter.com/LQs6bcjWSB

- Henry Olonga (@henryolonga) August 23, 2023

In an interview to Mid Day newspaper the former Zimbabwe all rounder Heath Streak dispelled the rumours "I am very upset to learn that something as big as someone apparently passing can be spread unverified especially in our day and age of social media".

Heath Streak has been suffering from a long term illness and is undergoing medical treatment in Zimbabwe.

Heath Streak's cricket career

Heath Streak captained Zimbabwe in 2000, at a time when a number of players withdrew from the national side as relations between the board and the team hit a rough patch.

The 49-year-old announced his retirement at the age of 31, in 2005. Streak still remains the only Zimbabwe bowler with more than 100 Test and over 200 ODI wickets.

In his decorated career Streak played 65 matches and picked up 216 wickets with an economy of 2.69.
In the ODI format, Streak featured in 189 matches, scalping 239 wickets at an economy of 4.51. His best bowling figures were 5-32.

With the willow, Streak amassed 1,990 runs in the red-ball format, at an average of 22.4. He featured in 65 Tests for his country.

In ODIs, Streak aggregated 2,934 runs at a strike rate of 73.4 and an average of 28.3.

In 1993, Streak marked his arrival in the world of cricket with a stellar performance against Pakistan.
He established himself as a player to watch out for, picking up 8 wickets in only his second Test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi.

Seven years later, Streak was appointed as the Zimbabwe captain but he ended up resigning as the responsibilities and tension with the board over the pay started to affect his form.

Though he was reappointed skipper in 2002, there was increasing pressure on him to take a political stand at the height of a civilian uprising against the then regime under long-time President Robert Mugabe.
Streak was criticised for not taking a political stand and decided to step down as captain in 2004.

After hanging up his boots in 2005, Streak returned to cricket as the captain of Warwickshire for the 2006 season after signing a two-year contract. But he ended up stepping down as skipper of the county side after just one game in the 2007 season.

In 2007, he signed up for the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL), marking the end of his journey in international cricket.

His legacy, however, was called into question in 2021 after he was handed an eight-year ban by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for breaching Anti-Corruption Code. Streak maintained that he was not involved in "any match-fixing, spot-fixing, or attempts to influence a game or share information from a changeroom during a match at any given time".

(With text inputs from ANI)