Sport runs through the Streak family

THE late former Zimbabwe Cricket captain and head coach Heath Streak is considered as one of the country’s cricket royalty due to the unparalleled talent that he possessed.

Streak, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 49, is one of the country’s greatest cricketers and the love for cricket and sport in general began at a young age for him as he grew up around a family that loved sport.

Born in Bulawayo on March 16,1974, Streak grew up on a family farm in Inyathi, Matabeleland North and was part of a great sporting family, from his great grandfather to his grandparents and parents.

Sport runs through Streak’s family blood. Speaking to a Zimpapers Sports Hub crew that visited the family’s Entokozweni Farm in Inyathi on Monday, Denis Streak, Heath’s father went through the family’s sporting history, something which helped shape the late legendary icon’s cricket life.

“Heath grew up in a real sporting family. Starting back in the early 1900s, my grandfather started cricket here at Inyathi and as you know, Inyathi is one of the oldest districts in the country. My father and mother both played a lot of sport. My father played hockey, in those days in Rhodesia, and also played rugby and cricket for Matabeleland. My mother played hockey and softball for Rhodesia and later on she played bowls for Zimbabwe.

“So, Heath grew up in a real sporting family. We played a lot of cricket and rugby as kids and throughout my career when I played for Rhodesia and Zimbabwe in 1975 to 1985. So, Heath was a child brought up on a farm that loved his sport.

“At the end of his junior school, he went on to Falcon College where he did really well academically and excelled on the sport field at cricket and rugby. At rugby he played for Zimbabwe Under-19 as a fullback but he loved his cricket and chose cricket as his career,” said Dennis.

With four generations all being great sporting personalities, the Streaks promise to continue shining in the sporting world and raising the Zimbabwean flag up high as the former Chevrons captain and coach’s son, Harry Streak is also doing well in the rugby fields in England where he is studying on a scholarship.

“It’s nice to see that his son, my grandson Harry, follows in his dad’s footsteps. He is a very good rugby player. He is at Brighton College in England, he got a scholarship to go to Brighton College and he has been playing really good rugby and cricket. He’s a big boy so it looks like he might even head in the same footsteps.

“He played in the schools’ Sevens festival which 230 schools and his college, Brighton College got through to the finals. So out of 230 odd schools, he did very well so we are very proud of him and proud of his cricketing prowess and he hopes to follow in his dad’s footsteps,” said Dennis.

The late Streak was a true legend of the game and tributes have been continuing to pour in from all the four corners of the world. He was always a man of the people, growing up speaking Ndebele as well as he spoke English, and never forgot his background. He was a hero of Zimbabwe’s first-ever Test match victory, over Pakistan at Harare Sports Club in the 1994/95 season, taking nine wickets in the match.

For most of his career, with varying degrees of support, he was the spearhead of Zimbabwe’s bowling, and in his 65 Test matches he took 216 wickets, he remains the only Zimbabwean to have taken more than 100 wickets in the game’s longest format, for an average of 28.14, with best figures of 6/73 in his final Test match against India in Harare in the 2005/06 season.

He managed to achieve a rare feat of 2 000 runs and 200 wickets in One Day Internationals (ODIs) in just 187 appearances for the Chevrons where he scored 2 901 runs for Zimbabwe at 28,44 and 237 wickets at 29,81.

Heath will always be remembered as one of Zimbabwe’s greatest cricketers and his funeral arrangements are yet to be announced but there is a memorial service scheduled to take place on Friday in Bulawayo. – @brandon_malvin