Heath Davis

During the days on tour, Heath Davis opened the bowling with blistering pace. At night he went looking for sex in places where nobody would know him.

"I was a bit afraid of just being out in Wellington. Being able to take my partner to the game,” he said, speaking of his time with the Wellington Firebirds. In speaking out now, Davis doesn’t consider himself to be a role model as much as someone who simply wanted to live as freely as everyone else. While on tour with the Black Caps, Davis kept mostly to himself. During the days on tour, Davis opened the bowling with blistering pace. Pace bowler Heath Davis was selected to play for New Zealand in 1994 at just 22. But behind the scenes was a life hidden.

Davis played five tests and 11 ODIs for the Black Caps and had a lengthy first-class career in domestic cricket as a fiery pace bowler. Speaking to the Spinoff, ...

Davis played just five test matches, finishing against Zimbabwe, at Harare, in 1997. "I was a bit afraid of being out in Wellington, being able to take my partner to the game." Speaking to the Spinoff, Davis described a "lonely" experience in the game, leaving his teammates on nights out.

Former test pace bowler Heath Davis has become the first male New Zealand international cricketer to come out as gay, still a rarity in the professional ...

Advertisement "There was a lot of that, just keeping your personal life separate. Advertisement

Former test pace bowler Heath Davis has become the first male New Zealand international cricketer to come out as gay, still a rarity in the professional ...

"There was a lot of that, just keeping your personal life separate. "I felt there was this part of my life I needed to express, I was sick of hiding it," he added. "I felt there was this part of my life that I was hiding," he said in an interview with online magazine The Spinoff.

Cricket News: Former Test pace bowler Heath Davis has become the first male New Zealand international cricketer to come out as gay, still a rarity in the ...

"There was a lot of that, just keeping your personal life separate. "I felt there was this part of my life I needed to express, I was sick of hiding it," he added. "I felt there was this part of my life that I was hiding," he said in an interview.

Heath Davis, now 50 and living in Australia, played five Tests and 11 one-day internationals from 1994 to 1997 as well as enjoying a lengthy domestic career ...

“There was a lot of that, just keeping your personal life separate. “I felt there was this part of my life I needed to express, I was sick of hiding it," he added. “I felt there was this part of my life that I was hiding," he said in an interview with online magazine The Spinoff.

Davis played five Tests and 11 One Day Internationals for the New Zealand national cricket team the Black Caps. The pace bowler was picked to play for his ...

I was sick of hiding it,” he said. There was a lot of that. The former Black Cap is the first male New Zealand international cricketer – either active or retired – to come out as gay. Heath Davis is first male New Zealand cricketer to come out But speaking to The Spinoff, Davis has come out as gay for the first time and recalled his “lonely” experience in the game, keeping his two lives separate in the 1990s. Retired New Zealand cricketer Heath Davis has become his country’s first male international cricketer to come out as gay, twenty eight years after his debut.

Davis, now 50 and living in Australia, played five tests and 11 one-day internationals from 1994 to 1997.

“There was a lot of that, just keeping your personal life separate. “I felt there was this part of my life I needed to express, I was sick of hiding it,” he added. “I felt there was this part of my life that I was hiding,” he said in an interview with online magazine The Spinoff.

Former Blackcap Heath Davis has shared his experience as a gay professional athlete, being Aotearoa's first international male cricketer to speak openly ...

Former New Zealand Test player Heath Davis has become the country's first male international cricketer to publicly speak about being gay.

He guessed some of his teammates knew he was gay before he told a couple of them in 1997 but he was never questioned about it. “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. Davis is now on a new journey – one that exists in tension with his sexuality. “I went to a few bars and things privately, just to see what life was like. “I certainly wasn’t living a gay life, wasn’t part of the scene, didn’t have a partner. It was during Davis’s first tour to England in 1994 when he started to really discover himself, he told The Spinoff, though he had told his mother at an early age he was gay.

New Zealand cult hero Heath Davis has become the country's first male cricketer to come out as gay.

There was a part of me that needed to break free and I wanted a partner to love. "I just wanted a normal life. "On the other side of the world no one is going to know you.