Frank Keating is almost apoplectic at the England selectors’ continued refusal to include Mark Ramprakash in a Test squad. Ramprakash is one century away from a hundred first-class tons, and Keating would relish it if he could bring up the landmark (becoming only the 25th player to have done so) in Surrey’s match this week while, in Keating's ideal scenario, England’s batsmen collapse in the first Test at Lord’s. Writing furiously in the Guardian, not even Keating's fellow journalists are safe from his anger:

It was (and continues to be) infuriating, almost shaming, how for the past half-dozen years successive Lord's mandarins (the dreaded po-faced politburo of Graveney-Fletcher-Hussain-Vaughan-Moores) have with such wantonly brazen impenitence refused, it seems, to so much as even glance at the batting averages. Those in the media who closely follow the game have, to my mind, been just as grievously culpable at kowtowing to, and finding simpering excuses for, the official party line. The exasperated, knowing public laugh at them as well.

Over in the Telegraph, Steve James is also irate. He has taken issue with the proliferation of Kolpak players, a subject he has touched upon regularly but his ire is deepening by the day. It was "too much” for him to see so many non-English-qualified players in a county match on the weekend:

Most fair-minded observers agree there are too many counties. And these Kolpak-kitted counties are merely emphasising the point that not enough English-qualified cricketers can be produced to fill eighteen counties. So the number will have to be reduced.

Back to the first Test for a second, and NZPA have analysed how the English press have considered New Zealand’s arrival.

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