News of former Zimbabwe cricketer Heath Streak's death turned out to be false as the cricketer himself send a WhatsApp text to his former teammate Henry Olonga, whose earlier tweet on Heath Streak had led to reports that Streak had lost his battle to cancer and passed away. Olonga received a WhatsApp message from Heath himself, with the latter confirming that he was very much alive. "Very much alive..pse revert this runout immediately buddy," said Streak in his message to Olonga.
After receiving the WhatsApp message from Streak, Olonga tweeted, "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 also deleted his earlier tweet in which he had implied that Streak had passed away.
Check Olonga's latest tweet on his U-turn on Heath Streak
Former cricketers who had tweeted about Heath Streak's passing away also took down their tweets after Henry Olonga clarified that Streak is alive.
Olonga's tweet started it all
It was Henry Olonga's tweet which was widely quoted and reported and which led news reports as well as former cricketers to tweet about Heath Streak passing away.
Henry Olonga tweeting about Heath Streak's death |
Heath Streak, part of Zimbabwe's "golden generation" ODI team
Heath Streak, who confirmed he is alive, played 65 Test matches and has over 400 wickets and 4,000 international runs to his name. Streak made his international debut for Zimbabwe in the year 1993 in an ODI match and then broke into the Test team that very year during Zimbabwe's tour of Pakistan in 1993/1994.
Heath Streak played his last last ODI match vs New Zealand at Harare in August 31, 2005 and ended his Test and international cricket career by playing his last match against India at Harare in September 2005.
