Some people have told me that I have one of the best jobs in the world as the producer of Test Match Special.

It is true that I get to sit at international cricket matches, listening to my favourite radio programme with an almost constant supply of cake!

But then again I do also have to work with Geoffrey Boycott.

However, there is no doubt that I feel especially fortunate this summer with such a potentially thrilling six months of cricket ahead.

Later in the summer we of course have England’s defence of The Ashes so look out for details of our exciting coverage across the BBC.

There is also the Women’s Ashes played for the first time over both Test and limited overs games, and TMS will have coverage of all matches.

Before that the eight best men’s teams in the world will gather in Cardiff, London and Birmingham for the ICC Champions Trophy next month.

TMS will have commentary of ALL fifteen matches in the tournament, which includes mouth-watering ties like India v Pakistan and the first meeting of the summer of England and Australia.

But the international season starts with the visit of New Zealand who are determined not to labelled as merely an aperitif for what is to follow.

There is plenty of extra spice to the Kiwi tour after they enjoyed the better of their home Test series against England.

We had a remarkable number of listeners who stayed up through the night gripped by the drama as messrs Bell, Broad and Prior somehow kept New Zealand’s bowlers out to force a famous draw in Auckland.

Hands up how many of you leaped out of your beds when Monty Panesar dived to make his ground amid unbearable tension at Eden Park?

The Test Match Special team on duty at Lord’s this week will be led by Jonathan Agnew with Henry Blofeld, Ed Smith and Bryan Waddle sharing commentary duties.

Our expert summarisers will be Michael Vaughan, Phil Tufnell, Geoff Boycott and the former New Zealand captain Jeremy Coney. TMS favourites Simon Mann and Vic Marks will be on duty later in the summer.

Although there is plenty of excitement ahead of the summer there is a rather bittersweet feeling in the TMS box as this is our first home series since the death of our much loved colleague Christopher Martin-Jenkins.

He might have been a nightmare to produce at times with his eccentric time-keeping and technophobia, but I dearly wish we could hear CMJ’s rapid steps and crash through the commentary box door again as he realised he was late for yet another spell.

It is a symbol of his importance to the game that the beautiful memorial service held at St Paul’s Cathedral last month was massively oversubscribed.

The service was a perfect tribute to CMJ in every way, except that it began and ended on time. We will play some excerpts from the memorial on Test Match Special this week.

Our first View from the Boundary guest of the summer will be comedian Andy Parsons of Mock the Week fame, we’ll review the ECB Player of the Year awards, hear a special interview with Stuart Broad and find out why a Russian chess grandmaster is turning up at the home of cricket.

There is no excuse for missing a moment of TMS this summer with our coverage on 5 Live Sports Extra, Radio 4 Long wave, online Worldwide and now via the BBC Radio iPlayer App. So you can literally take Geoffrey Boycott with you this summer…should you wish.

Plus Aggers and Boycs wll round off each day with the Test Match Special Podcast.

Anyway – I would love to tell you more, but I have lots of very important things to get ready before the Test starts…Now where did I put that cake knife?

Adam Mountford is producer of Test Match Special. The programme returns on Thursday 16 May at 10.45am for the 1st Test between England and New Zealand.

We sometimes say that 5 live is "the home of live sport." So what does that actually mean?

Well, we pride ourselves on covering a wide range of sports live - and from inside the venue. In fact, we aim to get as close to the action as possible. You might have heard Iain Carter and John Murray whispering while commentating out on the course at Augusta last weekend to avoid distracting the players during The Masters (yes, they are that close!).

We feel this kind of access is essential to capture the true drama of an event and to report on all the stories which seem to inevitably develop around sport.

However, just like television, you have to acquire rights to provide radio commentary from inside a stadium or from the course. These rights can sometimes be hotly contested in a competitive market place.

As such, we were pleased recently to extend our current Premier League commentary rights packages for a further three years from the start of next season. We have four out of the seven packages available - Saturday lunchtime kick-offs, first choice at Saturday 3pm, Sunday 4pm kick-offs, plus Monday and Tuesday night matches.

When combined with our coverage of the SPL, the Champions League, Europa League, FA Cup, Football League and international football, we think it makes a pretty compelling proposition for our football-following listeners. That's not to mention our coverage of the World Cup in Brazil coming up next year.

We are also committed to covering a wide range of sports - not just football - and this summer we are particularly excited by the prospect of a home Ashes series on Test Match Special on 5 live Sports Extra. Our England cricket commentary deal with the ECB lasts until 2019 so plenty more from Aggers and the team for a few years yet!

So how do we decide which rights to acquire and what sporting event we should cover on 5 live? To be honest, it's fairly simple: we choose what we think is most editorially compelling for the audience. We will use audience research and listening data to try to inform these decisions too. Of course not everyone will agree with our choices but they are always taken in good faith and with the audience in the forefront of our thinking.

I understand some listeners have asked why we haven't covered some of the recent Champions League matches not involving British sides. This has not been a question of rights so much, more an editorial decision based on the potential cost of coverage and the level of audience interest. We will be commentating on the Champions League final at Wembley and possibly the second leg of one or both of the semi-finals.

We do also have a responsibility to cover those other sports which perhaps don't hit the mainstream agenda as much as football and cricket - and we take that responsibility very seriously. So, expect to hear a lot more Olympic, Paralympic and women's sport over the coming months on 5 live and 5 live Sports Extra.

Ultimately, everyone at BBC Radio Sport loves sport and we all feel hugely privileged to provide what we hope is one of the best live sport services around. I am also lucky to manage some of the best broadcasters in the business who quite simply bring sport to life on the radio.

For a full list of upcoming 5 live commentaries visit our commentaries page.

Interviewing Andy Flower about the black armband protest was one of the most intense and moving one to ones I have experienced.

In ten years he has never talked in depth about events that led to him fleeing his homeland after the Cricket World Cup of 2003. The memories brought out emotions in the England coach that are rarely associated with the man who has plotted famous Ashes wins home and away and who took England to Number One in the World.

I first got talking to Flower about Zimbabwe over dinner in January last year when England were on tour in Dubai. We discussed the state of cricket in the country and the fact that his brother Grant had returned to help coach the national side.

It was clear that he was extremely passionate about the country – indeed he is fiercely proud to call himself a Zimbabwean – and little by little I became curious to ask about his famous protest with Henry Olonga.

When I realised that February this year would be the ten year anniversary, it seemed a pertinent time to see if Flower would be prepared to open up and speak about that turbulent, life changing period on record. After all, he has never written a book about it or delivered speeches on the topic as Olonga has done.

He has never felt it appropriate to do so, given the various professional positions he has held since then. In the immediate aftermath of the protest he did talk to the media about the plight of Zimbabwe in order to carry on highlighting the problems, but after a while he felt he wasn’t making any difference, so he withdrew from the topic.

It became apparent very early in our meeting at a Buckinghamshire country house hotel that he is reminded of the protest every day. More significantly, he is reminded of the reasons behind it, as he told me he keeps a framed copy of the statement issued by he and Olonga on 10^th February 2003, on the wall of his study at home.

When I asked him to read the statement for the recording, it turned out to be the first time he had spoken those words out loud in ten years. As he neared the end he struggled to keep his voice from cracking, and when he read the last line the emotion was evident in eyes that glanced up, brimming with emotion. It momentarily took me aback. I hadn’t realised it would affect him so much.

He also got emotional when talking about his children. Flower has not stepped foot in Zimbabwe since he left all those years ago, but feels he would be safe to do so now, and to take his three children back, who were all born there. “I want to show them the country. I want them to meet some of my friends. I want to show them what the country is about. It’s a huge part of our background and history… I’d love to go back.”

Most revealing about Flower, the man, was his last answer to me, when I asked if he had any regrets about the way his life has panned out as a result of wearing a black armband on the sleeve of his cricket shirt.

Despite all the success he has had in his cricket career Flower doesn’t profess to be a perfect human being and there are lots of things he regrets. But he will always look back and feel he did the right thing when he took a stand with Henry Olonga a decade ago.

Black Armband - The Full Story is on 5 live at 7pm on Thursday 7 February. Listen to the programme here or download after broadcast here.