Streak still seeks closure

By Tinashe Kusema

Located in the Turk Mine area, roughly 60km north of Bulawayo, the Streak residence is sure to be a hive of activity come Christmas morning.

Heath and his wife Nadine will have their hands full as their oldest daughter, Holly, will be in country accompanied by her fiancé, Sam. The two are expected to wed sometime next year. “Not sure if I can call it a quiet Christmas this time around, but my daughter Holly is coming from the United Kingdom with her future husband (Sam) and his family,” said Heath Streak.

“We are just going to try show them around Zimbabwe and take the opportunity to get to know each other.

“Hopefully, we won’t spend too much time in queues, for fuel and other things,” he said. As the Streak Christmas plans begin to unfold, one wonders about the state of mind of the 44-year-old through all these festivities. After all, it looks like the former Chevrons gaffer is most certain to have a remarkable end to an otherwise unremarkable year.

It was around this time that he had the world in the palm of his hand as the Chevrons stood on the cusp of history. They were scheduled to play a Boxing Day Test against South Africa.

Memories are still fresh on the mind of the legendary paceman. “I remember it all quite fondly; we had a practice session on Christmas day, which was followed by pre-match preparations and staff meetings,” said Heath Streak.

“We even had a Christmas dinner with the team later that night.“But it was a bit dull because most of the guys had not been paid yet and they were a bit stressed.

“Fortunately, the excitement of the Test that lay ahead saw us through,” he said. Unfortunately, that was to be as high as things got as the Chevrons lost that Test, inside two days, by an innings and 120 runs. The team then failed to qualify for next year’s ICC Cricket World Cup a few months later. Failures that not only cost the 44-year-old his job, but also saw him go on a 10-month hiatus from the game.

To this very day, the wounds are yet to heal as Streak is still to find closure on a year that promised so much yet delivered nothing at all.

“It’s quite difficult to find closure when you are still to get paid,” said Streak.

“You hear that ZC staff are getting paid into foreign accounts, the game is still getting administered poorly, many of the provincial association leagues are yet to start and all these things add on to the stress,” he said. Despite life dealing the 44-year-old a blow for most part of 2018, Streak refuses to give up and he has tried to give back as much as he has taken.

The former Zimbabwean international is presently taking both Zimbabwe Cricket and the Sports and Recreation Commission to task, going as far as suing the former for his outstanding wages. Streak refuses to see the World Cup qualifiers as utter failure. “Contrary to popular belief, I think the qualifiers were an enjoyable experience until, maybe, the last couple of games.

“We played some good cricket right throughout the tournament and we had some memorable games, some tight ones and the support from the fans was truly amazing. “It’s just unfortunate that certain decisions went against us in the West Indies game, and we failed to get the desired result in the rain-affected United Arab Emirates game,” he said. Sunday Mail.