Martin Crowe’s cancer diagnosis has worsened, the former New Zealand cricket great has revealed.

In a column for website cricinfo, 52-year-old Crowe says doctors are not giving him long to live because of the aggressive nature of his illness.

“Death is something I have contemplated lately, only because the medical experts say it’s nearly time,” Crowe wrote.

“Over the last few months, my cancer turned from being in sleepy remission to transforming into a new monster, much like a bull in a china tea shop.”

The former Black Caps’ skipper was first diagnosed with follicular lymphoma in October 2012, but a course of chemotherapy appeared to have held it at bay.

In September, he said it had returned and doctors have identified his condition as double-hit lymphoma, a rare and aggressive blood disease.

“Fancy having a deadly cancer with a cricket connotation!” Crowe wrote.

“I never got out hit-ball twice and I don’t plan to start.”

Crowe says the illness has changed his outlook on life over the past two years, having detailed much of his thoughts in a book published earlier this year.

He believes illnesses picked up during his playing career, including salmonella and glandular fever, compromised his immune system and contributed towards the lymphoma.

A former New Zealand captain and world-class strokemaker, he played 77 Tests and scored 5444 runs in a 13-year career.

He retired from first-class cricket in 1996.