Sam Billings
English cricketer
| Date of Birth | : | 15 June, 1991 (Age 34) |
| Place of Birth | : | Pembury, United Kingdom |
| Profession | : | Cricket Player, Footballer |
| Nationality | : | English |
| Social Profiles | : |
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Samuel William Billings (স্যাম বিলিংস) is an English professional cricketer. Billings is a right-handed batsman who fields as a wicket-keeper. He was born at Pembury in Kent and has played for Kent County Cricket Club teams since he was eight years old, making his senior debut for the First XI in 2011. In October 2017 he was appointed as the vice-captain of the team before being appointed as captain in January 2018, replacing Sam Northeast. He served as the club's captain until the end of the 2023 season when he resigned, although he retained the captaincy of the club's Twenty20 cricket team.
Billings is regarded as a versatile cricketer who studies the game intensely and has an imaginative range of scoring shots. He has appeared mainly in limited overs formats for the England cricket team and made his Test cricket debut in January 2022. He has played Twenty20 franchise cricket in the Pakistan Super League, Indian Premier League and in the Big Bash League in Australia and captained Oval Invincibles in all four seasons of The Hundred.
Early and personal life
Billings was born at Pembury in Kent and grew up on his family's farm in the north of the county. He developed as a good all-round sportsman, playing tennis for Kent and being offered a trial for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club after scoring a hat-trick against the team's academy team whilst playing for Corinthian under-14s. He also played racquets, squash, and rugby. His grandfather, Ron Billings, was a racquets champion and his cousin, Tom Billings, has been world champion of the sport. Billings attributes racquets with helping to develop his batting skills, in particular his hand-eye coordination.
Billings attended New Beacon School in Sevenoaks, and then Haileybury College in Hertfordshire, appearing regularly for their cricket XI throughout his school career. He studied for a degree in Sport and Exercise Science at Loughborough University. Billings has said that he was "nowhere near good enough" to become a professional cricketer before his time at university and credits it with encouraging him to work hard to develop his talent.
Early career
Billings made his first-class debut for Loughborough MCCU against Northamptonshire in 2011. He made a further first-class appearance for the team in 2011, against Leicestershire. In his four first-class matches for Loughborough MCCU, he scored 321 runs at an average of 45.85, with a highest score of 131. This score came in his debut match against Northamptonshire.
Kent career
Whilst at university Billings was also a member of the Kent squad, and he made his debut for the county in May 2011 in a first-class match against his university team, Loughborough MCCU. During the 2011 season he also made his List A debut for Kent against the Netherlands in the 2011 Clydesdale Bank 40, standing in for regular wicket-keeper Geraint Jones. Billings made three further List A appearances in the 2011 season, as well as playing in four matches in the 2011 Friends Provident t20. After leading the county in one day runs scored in 2012, Billings replaced former England wicket-keeper Jones in Kent's 2013 Friends Life t20 campaign. At the end of the season he kept wicket in the County Championship, breaking Jones' string of 115 consecutive Championship appearances for Kent before playing Sydney Grade Cricket for Penrith District Cricket Club during the 2013–14 English winter.
Billings became the first choice wicket-keeper for Kent in the 2014 season. He played in the champion county match in Abu Dhabi at the beginning of the 2015 season before scoring 693 runs at an average of 29.80 in the 2015 County Championship season and making his England One Day and T20 debuts. He was awarded his Kent county cap in August 2015 during the annual Canterbury Cricket Week and signed a contract extension with Kent, in January 2016.
International career
Billings was first called into the England Performance Programme in 2014 and took part in a training camp in Sri Lanka during the English winter. He had played for an ECB under-16 team in 2006 and for England age group teams at under-17 and under-18 level before touring Bangladesh with the England under-19 team in 2009.
He was named in the squad for the England Lions cricket team in the 2014/15 off-season in South Africa, making his debut and scoring 53 against a Gauteng Invitation XI in January 2015 and going on to play for the Lions in four of the five unofficial one-day international matches on the tour. In late 2014 he had been named in the provisional squad for the England cricket team before the 2015 Cricket World Cup, replacing the injured Craig Kieswetter, but did not feature in the final squad for the tournament.
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