Heath Hilton Streak was born on 16 March 1974 and is a former Zimbabwean cricketer and cricket coach who played for and captained the Zimbabwe national cricket team.
50 Facts About Heath Streak
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Heath Streak is the all time leading wicket taker for Zimbabwe in Test cricket with 216 wickets and in ODI cricket with 239 wickets.
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Heath Streak is the first and only Zimbabwean bowler to have taken over 100 Test wickets and one of only four Zimbabwean bowlers to have taken over 100 ODI wickets.
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Heath Streak is the first and only Zimbabwean to have completed the double of 1000 career runs and 100 wickets in test cricket as well as the first and only Zimbabwean to have completed the double of 2000 runs and 200 wickets in ODIs.
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Heath Streak was part of the 'golden era' of Zimbabwe cricket between 1997 and 2002.
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In September 2018, Streak submitted an application to the court to have Zimbabwe Cricket liquidated in relation to outstanding debts.
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Heath Streak was born in Bulawayo, Rhodesia and hails from a family whose background primarily involved ranching in Bulawayo.
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Heath Streak completed his education at the Rhodes Estate Preparatory School and Falcon College.
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Heath Streak held a junior hunter's license prior to becoming a professional cricketer.
10.
On 13 May 2023, David Coltart, a Zimbabwean senator, announced that Heath Streak was 'extremely ill'.
11.
Media reports stated that Heath Streak had been diagnosed with Stage 4 colon and liver cancer, and was 'on his deathbed'.
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Heath Streak made his first-class debut for Zimbabwe B against the touring Kent team on 30 March 1993 at Harare Sports Club.
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Heath Streak made his T20 debut representing Warwickshire against Glamorgan on 8 July 2004.
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Heath Streak was appointed as the captain of Warwickshire in 2006 after signing a two-year contract.
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However, on 25 April 2007, Heath Streak resigned as Warwickshire captain after featuring in just one match in the 2007 county season, indicating that captaining the side was affecting his on field abilities.
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Heath Streak made his ODI debut on 10 November 1993 against South Africa.
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Heath Streak made his mark in international cricket by taking 8 wickets in the 2nd Test at Rawalpindi.
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Heath Streak won the Player of the series award on his debut test series for his impressive performance with the ball taking 22 wickets at an average of 13.54.
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Heath Streak was part of Zimbabwe side which secured first test win against Pakistan in Pakistan soil in 1998.
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Heath Streak is the only Zimbabwean to have sealed his spot in the Lord's honours boards.
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Heath Streak possessed the ability to extract lateral seam movement on the most docile of the pitches.
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Heath Streak was part of the Zimbabwean side which finished fifth at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in men's cricket competition and was part of the Zimbabwean side which played in the preliminary match against New Zealand in the inaugural edition of the ICC Champions Trophy in 1998.
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Heath Streak claimed in an interview in The Observer that he was faced with moral challenges in captaining Zimbabwe.
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Heath Streak said that he was asked to falsely tell white players that they were not talented enough and were to be replaced by black players.
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Heath Streak was appointed as the captain of Zimbabwe side in 2000 for both test and ODI formats.
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Heath Streak was again appointed as the captain in 2002 and he was again under scanner and spotlight in wake of Zimbabwe's political crisis.
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Heath Streak captained Zimbabwe team in the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy and at the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy.
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Heath Streak captained the Zimbabwean team at the 2003 World Cup, a tournament marred by political tensions in Zimbabwe.
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Heath Streak was the most successful test captain of Zimbabwe with four wins and he was the second most successful ODI captain for Zimbabwe with 18 wins.
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Heath Streak returned to represent Zimbabwe in March 2005 after a one-year absence from international cricket.
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Heath Streak was part of the Africa XI team during the 2005 Afro-Asia Cup in a 3 match ODI series against Asia XI.
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Heath Streak retired from international cricket in October 2005 to become captain of Warwickshire County Cricket Club having previously played county cricket for Hampshire.
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Heath Streak captained his fellow exiled players from Zimbabwe in the Red Lions team, which plays charity games in England.
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Heath Streak was given the responsibility of working with the young Zimbabwean fast bowlers and for franchise cricket.
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In 2010, along with his former teammate Grant Flower, Heath Streak became a supporting coach of Zimbabwe under former English cricketer Alan Butcher.
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In 2013, Heath Streak's contract was not renewed for financial reasons.
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Heath Streak was appointed Bangladesh's bowling coach in May 2014 until 2016 for a contract of two years.
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In October 2016, Heath Streak was appointed head coach of the Zimbabwe national cricket team replacing Dav Whatmore.
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Heath Streak was tasked with ensuring Zimbabwe qualify for the 2019 World Cup.
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However, Zimbabwe failed to qualify for the World Cup following the disappointing performance by the team at the 2018 ICC World Cup Qualifier, and Heath Streak was forced to resign in early 2018 with the entire coaching staff was sacked by the board.
41.
The chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket, Tavengwa Mukuhlani alleged Heath Streak of being racist and insisted that some of his player selections during the 2018 World Cup qualifiers were influenced by the racism.
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However, Heath Streak refuted the allegations and accused ZC of being unethical and corrupted.
43.
Heath Streak joined Somerset in 2019 as a consultant bowling coach for a short stint.
44.
Heath Streak continued on in his role as bowling coach for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL.
45.
Heath Streak was found guilty of assisting a corruptor known as "Mr X" contact players.
46.
Heath Streak received two bitcoins, and an iPhone as payment from the corruptor in 2017.
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Heath Streak was accused of disclosing inside information about the franchise T20 leagues including Indian Premier League, Pakistan Super League and Afghanistan Premier League.
48.
Heath Streak himself accepted the ban by the ICC but denied the match fixing claims against him.
49.
Heath Streak founded the Heath Streak Academy in 2014 which was established for the development and growth of cricket throughout Zimbabwe.
50.
Heath Streak resigned from heading the Heath Streak Academy Trust in 2021 following eight-year ban by the ICC and the academy was later renamed as Zimbabwe Youth Cricket Academy.