Heath Streak Was a Bad Actor
Heath Streak tried on many hats in Zimbabwe, only one didn't fit: acting.
Heath Streak was a broad-shouldered guy, and when he ran in to bowl, you could had a full view of the Zimbabwe bird on his shirt flying.
In 1996, Heath Streak appeared in a poorly executed 1996 advert for an insurance company alongside his father. It’s one of those things that sticks with you once you watch it. The acting is not phenomenal. It was probably his worst performance in front of a camera, one that must have put any acting dreams to bed.
When they shot the advert, the 22-year-old Heath Streak was on his way to becoming a household name in Zimbabwe. Streak was writing the history books as he went along. During the 1993/94 series against Pakistan in Pakistan, Streak bagged 22 wickets at an average of 13.54. No Zimbabwean bowler has been able to better that haul. In February 1995, Streak became the first bowler to take a five-wicket haul in Test cricket at Queens Sports Club. Nothing could be more fitting, Streak was a local boy done good.
There is a second probable reason why the insurance company chose to cast Streak and his father, Denis, in the advert. They were the face of progressive white Zimbabweans. Father and son conversing in Ndebele gave a picture of white people immersed in local ways and customs. It wasn't only for the camera, though. At home, Streak floated between English and Ndebele. Young cricketers were always impressed by the sight of Streak and his father conversing in Ndebele at their farm. It communicated to them a strong bond between Streak and the area he lived in.
Heath Streak was a fourth-generation farmer. His grandfather bought land in the Turk Mine area, 60 kilometres north of Bulawayo, in 1896. For generations, the Streaks' have farmed cattle and founded a safari company, with zebra, wildebeest, kudu and giraffe roaming their terrain.
Streak didn’t just speak Ndebele, he understood the nuances the same way he understood the nuance of political division in Zimbabwean. Since 2000, when Zimbabweans refused the referendum put forward by Robert Mugabe’s government and the emergence of MDC, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, as a political party, the fissures that divide Zimbabweans have been gaping. There have been incidences and reports of people being murdered, buildings bombed, and families being torn apart because of political beliefs.
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In 2008, Zimbabwe faced one of its darkest periods of political violence as communities waged civil wars because of political affiliation. ZANU-PF youths created ‘bases’ reminiscent of the liberation war. Young people took over schools and turned them into quasi-military bases. From there, they launched a reign of terror. Opposition supporters were tortured. Ruling party youths administered paraquat on open wounds during torture. Paraquat is a highly toxic herbicide that can cause fatal poisoning when ingested or inhaled.
When he launched his academy, the Heath Streak Cricket Academy (later changed to the Zimbabwe Youth Academy after his suspension by ICC), Streak went out of his way to get an MDC MP, a ZANU-PF MP and another person who is very close to Emerson Mnangagwa, the current president. In his own way, he was showing people a third way, co-existence despite political differences.
But, Heath Streak’s biggest contribution to Zimbabwe was on the field. Streak is Zimbabwe’s highest all-time leading wicket-taker in both Test and ODI cricket with 216 and 239 wickets respectively, both at an average under 30 (28.14 in Tests and 29.82 in ODIs). He is also the only Zimbabwean to have completed the double of 1000 Test runs and 100 Test wickets, and 2000 ODI runs and 200 ODI wickets.
In 2000, Streak was appointed captain of Zimbabwe. It was an inspired appointment. Streak was the personification of Zimbabwean cricket. They didn’t have a superstar, the sum was greater than the individual parts. Andy Flower was the lead singer of an average band.
Zimbabwe didn’t blow teams out of the water, yet, for a long time, they were a team that was hard to beat. They were a plucky team. They had the ability to stay with you, constantly chipping around the opposition through the efforts of a bunch of plucky medium-fast guys helping bowlers like Heath Streak and Paul Strang.
What Zimbabwe lacked in skill, they made up for with hard work and application. They didn’t win a lot, but they were able to grind out more draws than they should have. Zimbabwe was all heart and effort and dared other teams to outwork them. That was Heath Streak. He wasn’t a batter by nature. He was a farmer and a fast bowler by nature, he became an allrounder by grit. When Zimbabwe needed runs, he found them somewhere within him.
When he became Zimbabwe’s coach, Streak went about turning the team into a modern version of the past. A modern gritty outfit. He managed, somewhat. During his year-and-a-half tenure, Zimbabwe’s win percentage was at 37.5, a definite improvement from his predecessor.
Gritty. He was gritty as a player and taught grit as a coach. It’s an admirable trait in teams. It’s an admirable trait in humans. It’s also a trait that can make you enemies. After he was dismissed by Zimbabwe Cricket, despite his success (win percentage), Streak fought to be reinstated. He didn’t succeed but did enough to piss off some people. They danced in glee after his ICC suspension and punched back whenever an article that spoke warmly of Streak was published.
Zimbabweans are adept at revising history. One time, I heard a story of a female politician whose struggle credentials were embellished with a heroic titbit when there was a push for her to run for presidential office. She was said to have shot down an enemy helicopter with a bazooka. After her ambitions fizzled out, the victors sought to rewrite her history and ascribed the valiant act to someone else.
Left to their own devices, the people pissed off at Streak would write Streak out of Zimbabwe’s cricket history. But, numbers are stubborn, especially if they are universally known and acknowledged. Heath Streak is the greatest all-rounder in Zimbabwean cricket.
Despite his issues with Mr X (Deepak Agarwal, identified as the corruptor by ICC), Streak remains a legend of Zimbabwe Cricket. In any case, Streak’s corruption case shows his duality as a human being: Sometimes good people make bad decisions. (I never met Streak, but many people I know met him, and they speak in unison to his goodness.)
Hero, villain, legend, sell out… Heath Streak is many things to many people, even in death. But, one thing that everyone can agree on is that he was a bad actor. The insurance advert from 1996 shows that Streak couldn’t act.
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Thanks for reading. Until next time… - CS