Billings ready to Step up

of county cricket but these are great opportunities and ones you’ll only be able to take up at a certain time in your career.

“If you get offered the opportunity to play top-level cricket around the world, in my opinion it would be stupid not to take it up. It does improve you as a cricketer.”

He added: “The example I gave to (head coach) Matt Walker at our end of season review was coming from the IPL into improve and put performances in for Kent and hopefully England further down the line, too.”

After committing his future to the club he joined at the age of eight, Billings hopes the disappointment of falling short in the Championship promotion push could inspire Kent to ‘an incredible’ season in 2018.

He said: “You have that emotional connection to the county, it’s home. My family are Kent through and through.

“It means a lot to play for my home county and makes (success) far more important.

“This year has hurt – things haven’t been good enough but it’s an exciting time. A lot of the time you can have an incredible season after a bad one.

“As long as we learn from this season, that’s the most important thing.”

Essex won the Championship this season, a year after pipping Kent to promotion from Division 2 and Billings added: “A couple of quality signings like they made and we’re in a similar position.

“We have had so many close shaves in recent years. It’s a matter of getting across the line now.”