Gloucestershire batsman Ian Cockbain may be deep into his well-deserved testimonial year but he still remains fiercely ambitious.

For a start he’d like to play more four-day cricket, he’d also like to reach T20 finals day after three times being a losing quarter-finalist and he’d also like to have another go at captaining the county.

Cockbain, who was born in Liverpool and played 2nd XI cricket for Lancashire before joining Gloucestershire after three years with MCC Young Cricketers, has certainly had an interesting time since moving to the South West in 2011.

The 32-year-old middle-order batsman has played well over 200 games for his adopted county and has scored centuries in all three formats of the game.

Three-quarters of those matches have been in one-day cricket and although Cockbain is a valued member of the county’s white-ball set-up, he is keen to re-establish himself in the county championship team.

“Yes, definitely,” said Cockbain, “I want to play as much red-ball cricket as I can. It’s nice to play white-ball cricket, playing in front of big crowds but it can be frustrating to then go back to playing 2nd XI cricket.

“Maybe I haven’t always made enough of my opportunities but I still believe I’m good enough.

“I had a really good season one year and then didn’t play at all the year after.”

That was in 2012 when he scored well over 750 runs at an average of close to 35 in a season when only New Zealander Hamish Marshall of the Gloucestershire players scored more runs than him.

But while his opportunities in four-day cricket have certainly reduced over the years, he has been a mainstay of the county’s one-day teams and will again be a big part of their T20 campaign which this season gets under way against Glamorgan at the Cheltenham Cricket Festival on Friday 19th July.

“I’d love to play on finals day,” admitted Cockbain, who recently signed an extended contract with Gloucestershire until the end of 2020. “We’ve come close three times but never quite got there.”

Cockbain does not want to be pigeon-holed as a one-day batsman but his stats are good in both forms of one-day cricket, averaging well above 30 in both T20 and List A with his runs coming at a very impressive rate.

And he reckons there’s more to come because he was working on his sweep and reverse sweep at the start of the season.

“I’d say I’m more of an orthodox batsman but you need variety in your game,” he explained. “You can’t be one-dimensional, you can’t just knock the ball back over the bowler’s head. I’m always trying to add to my game.”

Clearly Cockbain thinks about cricket – he was involved in the sport from an early age because his dad, also Ian, played for Lancashire from 1979 to 1983 – and he was given the chance to captain Gloucestershire midway through the 2015 season after Geraint Jones resigned.

He was put in charge of both the four-day side and the 50-overs side – Michael Klinger was the T20 captain – but after winning his first two championships games his season was cruelly ended when he fractured his wrist when hit by a beamer bowled by an academy player in the nets.

And what made it even harder to take was that 2015 was the year that Gloucestershire went all the way to the final in the Royal London One-Day Cup, beating Surrey by six runs on that never-to-be-forgotten day at Lord’s.

Cockbain was at the ground that day and while delighted for his team-mates, he admits that it was a “bittersweet” day for him.

“It was fantastic seeing the lads win it, it was very emotional,” he said. “But not being part of it was extremely frustrating.”

He enjoyed his brief spell as captain, however, and says that it is something he would love to do again.

“Very much so,” he said. “I really, really enjoyed being captain. When I was younger I was always captain of the teams growing up and I loved doing it.”

He loves playing cricket as well and has played abroad in 12 of the past 14 winters.

Cockbain still considers himself a northerner – he has a season ticket at Everton – even though he has lived in the south of the country for more than a decade.

Brought up in the shadow of Aintree Racecourse, his formative years in cricket were played at Bootle where his dad was a major player.

“He was my captain from the age of 14 to 20,” said Cockbain, “he has been a big influence on my career.”

When Cockbain senior was playing county cricket some 40 years ago, Twenty20 cricket had never even been spoken about let alone played in all parts of the globe.

Cockbain junior is a big fan of the shortened game of course – with a strike rate of close on 130 you’d expect him to be! – but surprisingly it’s not his favourite format.

“I prefer T20 to 50 overs cricket but the best game is 40 overs,” he said. “I played it when I first started and you don’t get the 10 overs of dead cricket in the middle of an innings that you get in 50 overs cricket when the batting side are happy to go at four or five an over and so are the fielding side.

“Nothing really happens but I guess that’s why we’ve had success at Gloucestershire because we’re good at drying up the opposition.”

And while Gloucestershire have been hugely successful in one-day cricket over the past couple of decades, they also want to make their mark in four-day cricket.

“It’s a big focus,” Cockbain said. “Three teams can go up to Division One this season. We’ve played some very good cricket at times but we need to be consistent.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys and keeping people fit and on the park is key if we are to be successful.”

Cockbain also believes reached T20 finals day is “a realistic goal” and a place at Edgbaston on Saturday 21st September would certainly be a great way to mark his testimonial year.

Ian Cockbain’s upcoming testimonial events

28th May: Q&A with Gloucestershire and Lancashire players, Cheltenham College (7pm).

5th June: Golf Day, Kendleshire Golf Club (9am).

28th June: Ian Cockbain XI v Downend (5pm).

30th June: Question of Sport Ashes Edition, Bristol County Ground (7pm).

18th July: T20 Preview Dinner, Cheltenham College (5pm).

27th September: Golf Day, Formby Golf Club (9am).

17th October: Dinner at Grange Hotel, St Paul’s (7pm).

7th November: London Dinner, London (7pm).

16th November: Winter Ball, Bristol County Ground (8pm).

For more details on any of the above events contact Toby on 07733 327892 or Tracy on 07974 233873.