Gay cricketers won’t e out until 'stigma' is tackled, boss warned

Contents:

• GAY CRICKETERS WON’T E OUT UNTIL ‘STIGMA’ IS KNOCKED FOR SIX, BOSS WARNED
• ENGLAND CRICKETER DAVI ADMS BEG GAY
• CRICKET BACKS STEVEN DAVI AFTER PLAYER ANNOUNC HE IS GAY

GAY CRICKETERS WON’T E OUT UNTIL ‘STIGMA’ IS KNOCKED FOR SIX, BOSS WARNED

Cricketer Steve Davi is the first and only English male pro to e out as gay. Gay cricket ach and activist Sam Schofield has cricised the England and Wal Cricket Board (ECB) for “lettg down” the LGBTQ+ muny.

After Jake Daniels beme England’s first pro male footballer to e out as gay more than three s, Schofield spoke of the need for more LGBTQ+ role mols cricket. Comparatively, the women’s divisn has players like Natalie Sciver and Kathere Bnt, an openly gay cricketer uple.

ENGLAND CRICKETER DAVI ADMS BEG GAY

But an creasg number of openly gay female cricketers are experiencg the petive dilemmas. The outlet Cricket Monthly recently ran a long feature story on the phenomenon of openly gay female cricket players.

While Bnt and Sciver are one of only three engaged or married upl who play on the same ternatnal cricket team, there are gay players all over the sport. And this XI all have one thg mon – they are gay.

Set up 1996 wh the aim of providg an “opportuny for people to watch and play cricket irrpective of genr or sexual orientatn, ” a world where beg gay wasn’t always accepted, Grac have bee a haven for people to e to terms wh their sexualy while also allowg them to play cricket. They’ve often e om societi where is illegal to be gay and the opportuny to meet like-md dividuals is somethg that Sam Nimaiyar, who was born India, has valued immensely.

CRICKET BACKS STEVEN DAVI AFTER PLAYER ANNOUNC HE IS GAY

But for Chris Sherwood – the club’s prs and publicy officer – beg able to play cricket and not stand out for beg gay is one of Grac’ unique appeal. “It’s nice not to be ‘the gay one, ’” Sherwood said. “I always feel like if I was a straight team, ’s like ‘oh Chris, he’s the gay one’ and then I have to e out.

“This is the reason ’s difficult for people to e out bee there’s all this banter about gay beg lser somehow and to sudnly go ‘that’s me, I’m gay, ’ ’s que a difficult thg to do. Modi moved om India to the UK 2004 and although he had known he was gay for the prev 18 months, he’d never had any gay relatnships. Upon movg to London, a batn of his membership at Grac, his new gay iends and his ex-boyiend – whom he still creds for much of the posive aspects of his life – Modi cid to e out to the most important person his life – his dad.

In tradnal Indian culture, where arranged marriag are often the norm, to have an openly gay relative would harm a fay’s abily to attract potentially prospero spo. Although is timated that the law change affected 104 ln gay Indians, is still not monplace to be openly gay Indian society. Whether is bee of tradnal attus or homophobic beliefs that still permeate through the untry as a rult of relig iologi, the numbers of openly gay people India is disproportnate to the populatn of India.