According to a report in the Daily Mail, the England player-turned-pundit, Dermot Reeve, has been warned by his production bosses at Channel 4 that he needs to "get his mind right" ahead of next week's second Test against New Zealand, after an erratic performance during the Lord's match earlier this week.

Reeve, a successful captain of Warwickshire in the early 1990s, apparently arrived late at the ground on both Saturday and Sunday, and missed entire sessions of play, including some scheduled stints in the commentary box. His excuse that he had overslept did not wash with his paymasters, and he was suspended from work for the final day's play.

Even when he was on air, Reeve's exchanges with his colleagues were unusually testy, not least with the video analyst, Simon Hughes, who suggested he should come up "with something more original" after one particularly barbed handover.

Reeve's role in the Channel 4 team has already been downgraded to make way for the impressive return of Geoffrey Boycott, while Michael Atherton's continued rise to prominence means that Reeve is in no position to upset his bosses.