Heath Te-Ihi-O-Te-Rangi Davis (born 30 November 1971) is a former

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. He played five

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and eleven

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

s in the 1990s. He played his provincial cricket for

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

Early and personal life

Davis was born on 30 November 1971 at

Hutt Hospital The Hutt Valley District Health Board (Hutt Valley DHB) is a district health board with the focus on providing healthcare to the cities of Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt in New Zealand. History The Hutt Valley District Health Board, like most other ...

, and spent his early years in the greater

Wellington region Greater Wellington, also known as the Wellington Region (Māori: ''Te Upoko o te Ika''), is a non-unitary region of New Zealand that occupies the southernmost part of the North Island. The region covers an area of , and has a population of T ...

before he moved with his family to Australia whilst he was in primary school. In 2022, Davis

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

as gay – making him the first Black Cap to publicly disclose his homosexuality.

Cricket career

Davis was prevented from enjoying a longer international career by problems with injury, wides and, particularly no-balls. A quick and skiddy bowler, his impressive Test figures hide the story of up to 14 no-balls in an innings. Davis was selected on the 1994 New Zealand tour of England. He was not expected to play any of Test matches but to "gain experience and take advantage of the opportunity to play or train every day".

Geoff Howarth Geoffrey Philip Howarth (born 29 March 1951) is a former New Zealand cricketer and former captain, who remains the only New Zealand captain to have positive win–loss records in both Test cricket and ODI cricket. He was the third most success ...

said of him "We knew he could bowl fast, but he had problems with his direction and no-balling". Ken Rutherford said "I soon learnt he had a lot of raw talent but very little cricketing nous". Due to injuries, he played in the first Test where New Zealand lost to

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by an innings and 90 runs and he bowled 21 overs and took 1 wicket for 93 runs. His first ball in Test cricket went for four wides. His career came in two short bursts, in between which he strove for improved rhythm. He tended to lose control when he strove for extra pace. He played both Test matches in the 1997

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

n tour of New Zealand taking four wickets in the first Test and five wickets for 63 runs in the first innings of second Test. His final Test match was played in

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against

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where he took 4 wickets but continued to be troubled by no balls, bowling 24 of them in the match. Davis moved to

Brisbane, Australia Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

in 2003 and he is involved with cricket coaching. In 2008, he suffered a workplace accident while driving a forklift. As a result, half of his left foot had to be amputated. He remarked about accident "I didn't want to remember all the no-balls that I bowled through my career. So I decided to do something permanent about it..." The

Otago Daily Times The ''Otago Daily Times'' (ODT) is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand. The ''ODT'' is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and a c ...

named him in their New Zealand Test team of the "greatest 11 players NZ forgot".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Heath 1971 births Living people New Zealand cricketers New Zealand Test cricketers New Zealand One Day International cricketers Auckland cricketers Wellington cricketers Cricketers from Lower Hutt New Zealand Māori sportspeople LGBT cricketers New Zealand gay sportsmen