Former bowler Heath Davis has become the first New Zealand international cricketer to come out as gay, which remains a rarity in professional play. Davis, now 50 and living in Australia, played five Tests and 11 one-day internationals from 1994 to 1997, while enjoying a long domestic career as a fast but erratic bowler.
“I felt there was this part of my life that I was hiding,” he said in an interview https://thespinoff.co.nz/videos/scratched-aotearoas-lost-sporting-legends /finding-heath-davis-scratched-aotearoas-lost-sporting-legends-the-spinoff#video with The Spinoff online magazine. “There was a lot of that, just keeping your personal life separate. It was lonely…I was repressing it, I wasn’t living a gay life.”
Davis said life improved after a move from his native Wellington to play domestic cricket in the more cosmopolitan city of Auckland in 1997. “I felt there was this part of my life that I needed to express. , I was tired of hiding it,” he added.
“Everyone in Auckland knew I was gay, on the team, but it didn’t seem like such a big deal…I just felt free.” Former England wicketkeeper Steven Davies became the first men’s international cricketer to come out publicly as gay in early 2011.
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