Two monumental moments hit the world of cricket yesterday, India and England high scoring tie and the announcement that England wicket-keeper, Steven Davies is gay. The cricket world cup game was an amazing spectacle, with Tendulkar and Strauss scoring tons and both sides finishing on a massive 338. I remember the days when you were satisfied to score 225, as victory was almost assured. The coming out of Davies though, has wider implications but, not in a bad way. I do not care about anyone's sexuality, I care about sport. So if a professional sportsman or woman cannot perform to their best, because they are withholding a dreaded secret, that then bothers me. How fellow players and fans deal with it will be interesting but, i can see no harm. Following on from Andy Gray and Richard Keys sacking, from Sky Sports, after sexist remarks about Sian Massey, all involved with the media and professional sport will be on their guard as to how they report this. If Davies comes out of this with the full support of his family, club and team mates then it won't be long before he rejoins the ranks of the England squad. Some have suggested that he was omitted from the one day world cup because of the cloud hanging over him regarding his sexuality. This is nonsense and anyone with half a brain understood the reasons Matt Prior took the gloves to India. What does suprise me is the lack of gay people within sport, or should i say the lack of outed gay people within sport. I do mean voluntary outed too, non of these blackmail stories that could be sold on to the Sunday rags. How many gay sports people have you seen over the years:
Martina Navratilova
Justin Fashanu
Gareth Thomas
Billie Jean King
How many others are there in the world of sport? Lets hope they and Davies get treated better than King and Fashanu and lets hope, with Davies announcement, that other gay and lesbian sportsmen and women, can rid themselves of the shame they feel and lead their lives as other straight sporting stars do, normally and without prejudice.
