Former New Zealand pacer Heath Davis discloses homosexuality publicly

While there have been many instances in women’s cricket of the players getting attracted to people of the same gender and also involving in same-sex marriages, this has been a rare instance among men’s international cricketers. However, former New Zealand Test pacer Heath Davis has lately come out as gay and became only the second homosexual men’s cricketer in international history.

Davis has thus become the first male New Zealand international cricketer to come out as gay with the first one being former England stumper Steven Davies who publically came out as gay in 2011. Meanwhile, the ex-pacer made it clear that everyone in Auckland domestic cricket team knew he was gay and the people over there did not make a big issue out of it and made him feel uncomfortable in any manner.

I felt there was this part of my life that I was hiding: Heath Davis

“I felt there was this part of my life that I was hiding. 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”, said Heath Davis in an interview with online magazine The Spinoff.

“I felt there was this part of my life I needed to express, I was sick of hiding it,” he added.

“Everyone in Auckland knew I was gay, in the team, but it didn’t seem to be that big an issue … I just felt free,” he further added.

Heath could not attain superstardom at the international level as he only played five Tests and 11 One Day Internationals between 1994 to 1997 taking 17 and 11 wickets respectively. Injuries and inconsistencies hampered him while he was trying hard to make a mark in international cricket.

Davis migrated to the Australian city of Brisbane back in 2003 and is involved with cricket coaching since then. In 2008, the veteran pacer suffered a workplace accident while driving a forklift. The extent of the injury was so severe that his left foot had to be amputated.