New Zealand bowler Heath Davis reveals he is gay

|HT|

Former New Zealand fast bowler Heath Davis, who represented the BlackCaps in five Tests and 11 ODIs, has revealed that he is gay. In a riveting chat, Davis, 50, has opened up about his sexuality and his battle with "loneliness" as he struggled to balance his life on and off the field.

"The first tour to England [in 1994], I was starting to discover myself, was going to a few bars and things privately to see what life was… well, you are on the other side of the world, no one is going to know you. I left that part of my life there. There was a lot of that, just keeping your personal life separate," Davis said in a documentary series for The Spinoff called "Scratched: Aotearoa's Lost Sporting Legends".

"It was lonely. Going to saunas and seedy places to get sex because you didn't want to be seen and that sort of stuff. I had systems and people in place where I could talk about these things but I didn't feel comfortable."

Davis joins former England wicketkeeper Steven Davis as only the second male cricketer to publicly 'come out of the closet'. One of the fastest bowlers produced of New Zealand, Davis had pace but lacked discipline. Having made his debut in ODI and Test debut in 1994, he picked up 11 and 17 wickets respectively. He struggled to cement a place in New Zealand's Playing XI due to lack of control and would eventually lose his place. His last match for New Zealand came in 1997 against Australia, after which he moved to Auckland, where he says things got better.

"All the stars aligned to move," he said. "Everyone in Auckland knew I was gay; in the team it didn't seem to be that big an issue. Maybe some of the young ones if you're sharing a room with them or something, but just petty s**t. Things I thought might have been issues weren't really. I just felt free."

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