Former national cricket team captain Heath Streak is taking over as head coach at two-time Logan Cup title winners Matabeleland Tuskers for the upcoming 2012-2013 season.
Tuskers’ chief executive officer Stanley Staddon yesterday confirmed that Streak was coming to the helm of the Bulawayo-based franchise. Staddon said he would be meeting with Streak, who is with the national team in Harare, to finalise the issue of player contracts tomorrow.
Streak, a fast bowler in his time, is the national team’s bowling coach and takes over from Dave Houghton at Tuskers.
Vumi Moyo, Matabeleland Tuskers area manager, also confirmed Streak’s engagement and said the former national team captain would start work on September 1 on a one-year contract.
“He will be starting on the 1st of next month and it’s a one-year contract. Streak will be meeting with the CEO on Saturday (tomorrow) to decide on which players will be given contracts for the upcoming season. But I don’t think they will be any changes on any new players coming. We are content with what we have because we have been very successful,” Moyo said.
Tuskers start training for the 2012-2013 season in the first week of September for the season which kicks off in October.
Tuskers are likely to be retaining batsmen Chris Mpofu, Njabulo Ncube, Gavin Ewing, Keegan Meth, John Nyumbu, Terrence Duffin, Craig Evans, swing bowler Glen Querl and all-rounder Keith Dabengwa.
Streak (37) made his Test debut in Zimbabwe’s tour of Pakistan 1993/1994 making his mark by taking eight wickets in the 2nd Test at Rawalpindi (December 9–14, 1993).
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He won the Man of the Series Award in that series taking 22 wickets at an average of 13.54 and bettered his best bowling figures in 1995 when Pakistan toured Zimbabwe taking 6/90 in the first Test in Harare.
In 1995/96, Streak played in the same Matabeleland team as his 46-year-old father Denis in the final of the Lonrho Logan Cup against Mashonaland Country Districts; this was the first instance of a father and son playing in the same first-class match for more than 30 years. In 2000/2001, he won two Man of the Series awards, first on Zimbabwe’s tour of England and then on Bangladesh’s tour of Zimbabwe.
He retired from international cricket in October 2005 to become captain of Warwickshire County Cricket Club having previously played county cricket for Hampshire.
On April 25 2007, Streak resigned as Warwickshire captain, saying captaining the side was affecting his on-field abilities.
At the end of 2007, he joined the Ahmedabad Rockets in the Indian Cricket League (ICL).
He played two seasons in the ICL along with appearing in the Hong Kong sixes. In 2009, he cut his ties with ICL, and in that August was appointed as the bowling coach of the Zimbabwe national team and was also given the responsibility of working with the young Zimbabwean fast bowlers and for franchise cricket.
