Steven Davies becomes first British cricket athlete to come out as gay

And a cricketer shall lead them? Steven Davies, who at 24 is one of Europe’s rising stars and has practically his entire career ahead of him, announced to the world today that he’s gay. Davies, who plays for Surrey, said in an interview with London’s Daily Telegraph that he could no longer lie about his sexuality.

“I’m comfortable with who I am – and happy to say who I am in public,” Davies said.

And he said he hoped his decision would help other young gay people to have the confidence to follow in his footsteps.

“This is the right time for me…I feel it is right to be out in the open about my sexuality. If more people do it, the more acceptable it will become. That must be a good thing.

“To speak out is a massive relief for me, but if I can just help one person to deal with their sexuality then that’s all I care about.”

Davies said that he finally decided to reveal his secret after being called up for the Ashes tour to Australia (which England won). He said that being away from home for more than a month with the English team would have been uncomfortable without everyone knowing the truth.

He said he received wonderful support from his team-mates, especially fellow wicketkeeper Matt Prior and captain, Andrew Strauss, and now looks forward to getting on with, what he hopes will be, a long and successful career at the highest level.

Far from being a Don’t Ask Don’t Tell situation in team sports, especially in the U.S., coming out as gay can be more likely described as “Don’t tell and we won’t ask you to get the hell out.” Europe has a long way to go before more gay athletes like Davies feel comfortable coming out: It was just three months ago that not a single British pro soccer player or agent would agree to appear in an anti-homophobia PSA commercial.

And in the U.S., just the crime of not being draped with women 24 hours a day could get a pro athlete accused of being gay (See: Steve Young, Troy Aikman, Mike Piazza, Jeff Garcia). Infamous homophobic rants by Tim Hardaway, Larry Johnson and John Rocker more or less represent where we are on the issue. It all makes what Davies did even more remarkable and courageous.

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Steven Davies: England cricketer announces he is gay [London Telegraph]