England cricketer Sam Billings has issued a warning to fellow members of the cricketing fraternity and said that players of the sport need to be more proactive in ensuring their protection against the sun. The English wicketkeeper-batter has had two operations to remove a malignant melanoma on his chest in 2022. He was diagnosed with the same after he attended a screen cancer screening at Kent.
Even though the 31-year-old recovered from the same and did not miss out on much of the cricketing action, he now wants to use his experience to help others who might come across a similar situation. He recalled the first time his teammates asked him about the scar on his chest during a recent interview.
"I think the boys were pretty shocked," he told The Telegraph.
"I've been that classic Brit abroad, as a 22-year-old with fairer hair in Australia thinking that it was worth going a bit red to end up brown," he said.
Billings disclosed that he almost missed the screening to attend a meeting but stayed upon getting instructed by the Kent physio. He was asked to get a mole on his chest removed which found a melanoma that was 0.6mm deep.
"The margins are so small but can have massive consequences," Billings said.
Even though Billings' recovery was rather quick as he returned for the team's white-ball matches against Australia by November, he said that the entire phase was "mentally challenging" and has made him more emphathetic as a captain and a person.
"I'm not just talking about the pro game,"Billings said.
"It's club cricketers, people who watch the game."
"We treat it [applying sun cream] like a chore. I'd like to see everyone in cricket working together: the sun is out, so let's protect ourselves," he added cautioning one and all about the ill-effects of being overexposed to the sun.