The Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) has appointed Streak as captain for the 2002-03 season with immediate effect.

Streak was originally appointed skipper last year but resigned before a one-day match with the West Indies in protest of a lack of input in team selection.

Young left spinner Brian Murphy took over but was replaced by Guy Whittall, Alistair Campbell and then Stuart Carlisle.

Streak said: "There's been some positive stuff that's happened in the cricket union.

"There's much better support for the captain now with [coach] Geoff Marsh at the helm and Kevin Curran assisting. That's a lot better.

"Things are running a lot more professionally under the new chief executive Vince Hogg and there's just a lot more support for the captain, which was one of my problems and I felt it was starting to tell on my own game.

"Hopefully I can focus now on the job of leading the guys and assessing things on the field, rather than worrying about what's going on off the field."

Streak will lead a 14-man squad in the ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka in September.

And Streak is confident Zimbabwe will put in a good show.

He said: "We ended off well last season in the one-day game, going down 3-2 to India in a series we could have won and we've got guys like Shaun Irvine and Guy Whittall back in the squad so there's a good blend of youth and experience.

"Half the guys have been overseas and the rest of us have had a strenuous fitness regime that we've been following so hopefully...we'll be pretty well prepared.

"We're fit and fresh and especially with the World Cup coming up we need to get off to a good start this season and get some confidence up."

Squad for the ICC Trophy: Heath Streak (captain), Alistair Campbell, Stuart Carlisle, Dion Ebrahim, Andy and Grant Flower, Travis Friend, Douglas Hondo, Stuart Ervine, Douglas Marillier, Mpumelelo Mbangwa, Henry Olonga, Tatenda Taibu and Guy Whittall.