Six reasons to pick up the May issue of The Cricketer!

County cricket is up and running again, a cause for celebration in the May issue of The Cricketer...

Amid the sunshine, snow and pocket warmers, there have been some decent totals and centuries from England contenders, including Ollie Pope, our cover star, who actually made a double. Another Ollie, Robinson, is also on the England selectors’ radar, with several players either injured or likely to be held up at the IPL for the Test series against New Zealand. As usual, we have great writers discussing the game...

You can buy a copy of the issue online HERE or SUBSCRIBE HERE! Here's what's in the mag...

1. "It changed my life and we weren’t geared up for that as a family, but it was mostly for the good. Those sort of performances only come along once a lifetime"

Sir Ian Botham recalls the summer of 1981 and how the old gang are coming together this year to recall that legendary Ashes series to Huw Turbervill.

2. "If I can get my skill-set right, I’d love to be head coach or director of cricket at Warwickshire, but we will see how it goes"

Ian Bell – in a wide-ranging interview – discusses how he worked to be gritty not pretty; how he coped with Australia; how he hopes to become a head coach; and what reality show he wants to be on.

^{Sir Ian Botham chats to Huw Turbervill}

3. "He was suddenly summoned to Lord’s. The BCCI were insisting on players being available for four weeks or no England player would be picked. It was like a hand grenade had gone of"

Mike Jakeman tracks the history of English players in the IPL, and why the ECB now seem reluctant to stand their ground over home Test cricket.

4. "The counties are fourth in line of priority behind England, the IPL and The Hundred"

George Dobell says county cricket has been condemned to the bottom of the scrapheap.

^{Melinda Farrell on Meg Lanning's Australia}

5. "The warning bells have been ringing for years that the gap between Australia and the rest of the world was widening and may one day be all but impossible to bridge"

Melinda Farrell charts the ascendancy of Meg Lanning’s all-conquering Australians, and asks: Are they the most dominant side in cricket history?

6. "I did a bit more research and saw all the great names who played on both sides, and that Hobbs declared that he had batted at his best. I gradually realised ‘I’ve just got to do this"

Jack Russell tells James Coyne why he has painted Jack Hobbs batting in a near-forgotten ‘unofficial Test’ in Norfolk 100 years ago.

^{Somerset's Tom Lammonby}

Elsewhere... Somerset's Tom Lammonby features in this month's county interview, Nasser Hussain laments the injury to Ben Stokes, Tanya Aldred argues that women should be excused from wearing whites, Barney Ronay explores the sad tale of Heath Streak, Mike Selvey feels the Blues about the universities’ lost first-class status:, Richard Heller and Peter Oborne call for a change to the South African record books, James Coyne and Timothy Abraham tell the remarkable story of the Argentine aristocrat who ran through a great Australia side 100 years ago, turned down an Ashes tour… and was almost bumped off by the Perons, and much more!

You can buy a copy of the issue online HERE or SUBSCRIBE HERE!