Monday 19 September 2016 15:18, UK
Middlesex director of cricket Angus Fraser has refused to get drawn into the dispute over Jonny Bairstow's availability ahead of the Specsavers County Championship title-decider against Yorkshire, live on Sky Sports.
Director of England cricket Andrew Strauss and England coach Trevor Bayliss have refused to allow Bairstow to play against the leaders despite a request from Yorkshire.
Yorkshire, the reigning champions, were advised by England to rest wicketkeeper-batsman Bairstow and Joe Root following the end of the international summer and the county obliged by leaving both players out of their squad to take on Somerset last week, a match they lost by 10 wickets.
They issued a statement on Sunday expressing their disappointment at the ECB's decision not to allow Bairstow to return, but head coach Jason Gillespie said they respected the decision as the team prepared to board the coach from Leeds to London on Monday.
Fraser is also an England selector but insists he is focused on the Middlesex team and has distanced himself from the decision.
He told Sky Sports News HQ: "I can understand it obviously, being an England selector myself, you are sat in a room listening to lots of advice. But it's not really something for me to get involved with.
"I'm looking after Middlesex's affairs at this moment in time. I have no input into whether a player plays for a county. We just receive an email at the end of each match telling us who's available and who's not available and we work by it.
"So during a summer lots of counties are losing players. We've lost Finn. Morgan, Compton, Roland-Jones, Malan earlier in the season. It's obviously unfortunate he's not available for Yorkshire for this game this week."
Middlesex go into the Division One match, which starts at Lord's on Tuesday, with a nine-point leader over Yorkshire and a win will secure them their first title since 1993, when Fraser was a key member of the team.
He said: "[The players are] feeling excited. It's a big week. It's something they have worked hard for. You want to be playing in these sort of games at this stage of the season.
"They are really looking forward to it and who knows what's going to happen. It's one of the beauties of sport - we can't predict what's going to take place - but we are in a good place.
"You obviously look at the opposition but it's more important that we play well. We have had 15 good games to date and we have got to make sure we have a 16th good game."
England fast bowler Steven Finn, who has featured in the last two Championship matches for Middlesex and will be involved again against Yorkshire, has, however, supported the ECB's decision.
He said: "England ultimately have a responsibility to keep their players fresh and to keep them mentally fresh as they possibly can for a long winter ahead.
"We have got seven straight Test matches in Bangladesh and India, preceded by a one-day tournament in Bangladesh and Jonny is more than likely to play every game. So I think the ECB has a right and a duty to look after the player as much as they can, which I believe they do."
