His teammate Henry Olonga initially had let the world know by posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Streak passed away following his long battle with cancer. But he later clarified that Streak is very much alive.
“Sad news coming through that Heath Streak has crossed to the other side. RIP @ZimCricketv legend. The greatest all rounder we produced. It was a pleasure playing with you. See you on the other side when my bowling spell comes to an end…,” Olonga posted.
Olonga then in his new post said that rumours of Streak’s death were greatly exaggerated and that he had heard from him.
“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 sain in a post.
He also shared a screenshot of his recent conversation with Streak on WhatsApp.
On Saturday, Olonga felt extreme sorry and wrote a long apology note over the false news that Streak, his former long-time teammate-cum-friend of 39 years, had passed away.
“In any case I was informed that Heath had taken a turn for the worse. We were encouraged to write kind words for his eulogy. So it appeared imminent. I will not go into too much detail how the mis-communication occurred but rest assured I heard the story first on Facebook like everyone else,” wrote Olonga in his Facebook post.
“I did immediately text Heath and Nadine to verify. It was a while before they could respond as it was late at night. I texted a few close cricket colleagues who know the family well and they confirmed it was true. I did ask pointed questions to verify but they were convinced.”
“After all I had only heard from Heath the day before so it seemed kind of sudden. But I truly was devastated as I genuinely believed he was gone. And all the emotion I felt I am sure those who encountered the story felt it too,” he added.
Olonga further wrote he got a message from Streak later, asking him to ‘reverse the decision’. “Obviously I am extremely sorry that I took it as gospel. I then placed my own tributes which seemed to gather a lot of traction ( amongst many tributes out there ) only to get a text from Heath a few hours later in which he asked me to reverse the decision. ( He has always had a great sense of humour).”
“I then had to back track and attempt to fix the error that unfortunately had gone global. But how can it get fixed easily in this day and age? So I retracted as best I could. I of course profusely apologised to the Streaks after the clanger. They did not need this.”
“In any case, I hope you understand the context now and again appreciate your forgiveness for my part in this unfortunate affair. I am very sad about it. It was extremely heartwarming to see how much love there is out there for our champion. Perhaps a silver lining,” he added.