Clarke urges cricket fans to cover up

Michael Clarke wants to send a message to those cricket fans who sit shirtless in
the stands as they soak up the nation's summertime sport.
The Australian cricket team vice-captain, who has had three skin cancers removed
from his face, wants fans to keep enjoying the game but please, cover up.
"I hope they're sitting near me, I hope I'll be fielding on the boundary," Clarke
told reporters on Wednesday, suggesting he could also deliver the message
personally.
"Coming to the cricket is a wonderful thing ... and I don't think we're saying don't
enjoy some time in the sun, but when you're out there, I think prevention is very
important.
"A lot of the people who come and support our game will have a hat on, and will have
sunscreen on, and the more people we can get covering up, is very important."
And, in a major concession ahead of an Ashes series, Clarke also said: "I would hate
for anybody to get sunburn - even England".
He spoke in Sydney at the launch of the latest research, commissioned by Cancer
Council Australia, which probed views on a cancer that claims 1700 Australian lives
every year.
The poll of just over a thousand adults found broad acknowledgment of the risk, with
almost half (46 per cent) saying it was "likely" they would develop skin cancer.
Yet in the past 12 months, 40 per cent of men and 36 per cent of women did not check
their own skin for suspicious mole activity, or have a GP or loved one do it for
them.
The research also found more than three million Australians (23 per cent of men and
15 per cent of women) rarely, or never, use sun protection while outdoors in the
summer sun.
Just a quarter said they followed the five-step approach to sun safety - slip on a
shirt, slop on sunscreen, slap on a hat, slide on sunglasses and seek shade.
"I wear sunscreen every day, I field in a long-sleeve shirt, I'm always wearing a
cap and sunglasses," Clarke said, adding he was the sun safety enforcer for the
Australian team.
"... The hardest thing I find to do is to wear a wide brimmed hat because we all
wear our baggy greens generally.
"I think it would be hard to change the guys' minds on the baggy green, but our
shirts have collars and a lot of the guys are wearing their collars up."
Clarke had three non-melanoma skin cancers removed from his nose and lip during his
sporting career and, while less aggressive than melanoma, these types of cancer
still claim 450 lives a year.
Australia has one of the highest incidences of skin cancer in the world, at nearly
four times the rates of Canada, the US and the UK.