Steven Davies: admitting I'm gay was 'tougher than facing Brett Lee'

He told his England team-mates before the Ashes series, but here cricketer Steven Davies explains the truth about his sexuality to Elizabeth Grice 

He looks cool and collected but his mouth is dry and it’s obvious Steven Davies would rather be somewhere, anywhere, else.

Months of personal conflict have led to this moment, when England’s talented young wicketkeeper is ready to reveal what his colleagues have known, but kept secret, since the Ashes series began last year – he is homosexual, and has struggled for years to conceal it.

The 24-year-old Surrey player made the startling confession to his team-mates just before the tour to Australia, but they agreed to keep the story “in house” to protect him and so that it would not be a distraction.

In a remarkable piece of mentoring, Andrew Strauss, the England captain, and Andy Flower, the coach, undertook to ring every member of the team on Davies’s behalf. “It was a fantastic thing to do,” he says. “It was a massive relief, telling the lads. The difference is huge. I am so much happier.”

Now he admits that concealing his sexuality had become increasingly hard to bear, especially on tour when he would retreat to his hotel room because he felt so “out of the loop” when other players were exchanging banter.