Wisden Cricket Monthly Magazine February 2020 Back Issue

Wisden Cricket Monthly’s first issue of the new decade includes a special report into the English game, assessing the current state of play and investigating what the future holds for cricket in this country.

In a series of articles across 24 pages, we consider The Hundred and its wider impact, the future of the women’s game, the affordability of domestic and international ticket prices, the measures in place to tackle corruption and the issue of grassroots participation, focusing in particular on the ECB’s South Asian Action Plan.

Elsewhere, we have a rare and important interview with Ravichandran Ashwin, who speaks to John Stern about using his platform to raise awareness of climate change and pollution. “This isn’t propaganda,” says the Indian spinner. “It’s just me leaving a footprint of who I am.”

We also have an exclusive interview with Sri Lanka's great fast bowler Lasith Malinga, Phil Walker explains why Ollie Pope is the best young batsman in the world, Andrew Fidel Fernando reports from Pakistan on the long-awaited return of Test cricket, and Worcestershire seamer Pat Brown reveals how to bowl his trademark knuckle ball.

And our team of columnists are in their usual excellent form: Adam Collins looks at the stratospheric rise of Marnus Labuschagne, Andrew Miller says Joe Denly may only be truly appreciated when his “stop-gap” Test career is over, and Lawrence Booth picks out the cricketer who popularised the reverse sweep in his ‘Influencers' series.