New Zealand Cricketer Heath Davis Becomes First To Come Out
Heath Davis, the former New Zealand Test player, has become the country’s first male international cricketer to come out as gay.
Davis, 50, played five tests and 11 one-day internationals for the Black Caps between 1994 and 1997, and was known as an intimidating, if inconsistent, pace bowler.
As the Guardian writes, three decades after his debut, Davis publicly revealed his sexuality in an episode of the documentary series Scratched: Aotearoa’s Lost Sporting Legends.
Former England wicketkeeper Steven Davies was the the first to come out publicly in 2011.
It was during Davis’s first tour to England in 1994 when he started to really discover himself, he told The Spinoff. Although he had told his mother he was gay when he was younger.
“I went to a few bars and things privately, just to see what life was like. You’re on the other side of the world, no one’s going to know you,” he said. “There was a lot of that, keeping your personal life separate.”
He suggested that some of his teammates may have guessed he was gay before he told a couple of them in 1997. But he was never questioned about it. “I certainly wasn’t living a gay life, wasn’t part of the scene, didn’t have a partner. There was nothing to tie it to, if you know what I mean,” Davis said.
Davis had his first gay relationship when he was 27, while playing for Wellington, but he was reluctant to appear in public as a couple. When an offer of a contract came from Auckland, Davis saw an opportunity to move away from the city he did not felt comfortable being out in. Davis told his new team’s manager he was gay, which was passed on to his team members and “didn’t seem to be that big an issue.”
A study on homophobia in sport, from May, revealed that New Zealand gay and bisexual men were the most likely to keep their sexuality secret, with many saying they feared bullying and discrimination.
Former Wellington Firebirds player, Stephen Mather, said Davis told him about his sexuality in 1997, when there were no other out gay men playing.
“There were 80 or 90 men – so that doesn’t make a huge amount of sense on a probability scale,” Mather said in the video. “There was some pretty free thinking people in the cricket circles at that time but there were also some pretty old school attitudes as well.”
Homophobic attitudes in sport still very much exist, said Madeleine Chapman, The Spinoff’s editor and producer of the documentary series. “But I do think that [Davis’s story] could potentially be an opening for other athletes to share parts of themselves if they’re comfortable with it,” Chapman said.
The responses have so far been very positive, she said. “I think other athletes, particularly young athletes being able to see that sort of honesty and vulnerability be warmly accepted by readers and viewers can only be encouraging.”
Read related myGwork articles here:
Cricketer Ben Stokes Mocked Two Gay Men Before Violent Attack Outside Nightclub
Fox Sports Presenter Outed As Lesbian By Colleague Opens Up About Ordeal
Tales From the Pitch: LGBTQ+ Experiences in Sports
Russian Tennis Player Daria Kasatkina Comes Out
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