{"id":479223,"date":"2026-03-16T21:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T21:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/479223\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T21:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T21:30:08","slug":"worst-experience-liam-livingstone-criticises-key-and-mccullum-regime-england-cricket-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/479223\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Worst experience\u2019: Liam Livingstone criticises Key and McCullum regime | England cricket team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liam Livingstone has given a scathing account of his handling by the current England regime, claiming \u201cno one cares about you\u201d. The Lancashire all-rounder has exactly 100 caps for his country across all three formats but has not featured in more than a year and seems resigned to things staying that way.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Cricinfo, the 32-year-old was highly critical of interactions with the director of cricket, Rob Key, and described his time at the Champions Trophy last year as \u201cthe worst experience I\u2019ve had playing cricket\u201d and said he did not miss being part of the recent T20 World Cup.<\/p>\n

While his words can be framed as those of an out-of-favour player railing against a management group that has looked elsewhere \u2013 he was cut from the 2025-26 central contract list \u2013 it would be worrying if his views were replicated elsewhere beyond the England bubble.<\/p>\n

The England and Wales Cricket Board\u2019s Ashes review, covering \u201ctour planning and preparation, individual performance and behaviours\u201d after the 4-1 defeat in Australia<\/a>, is ongoing.<\/p>\n

Describing a lack of communication after his dropping in a brief phone call by the head coach, Brendon McCullum, in May last year, Livingstone said: \u201cI don\u2019t think it would have reached a minute. I asked why; they said they wanted to try someone else. That was off Baz. Brooky [Harry Brook] sent me a text.<\/p>\n

England head coach, Brendon McCullum, and the managing director of the England cricket team, Rob Key, at a nets session during last year\u2019s Ashes. Photograph: Robbie Stephenson\/PA<\/p>\n

\u201cKeysy said nothing, [he] said I\u2019ll speak to you in the summer. I actually rang him one day and he said he was busy at a Test camp at Loughborough and then I didn\u2019t hear from him until the end of September.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat probably sums that group up as a collective. That was a bit of an eye-opening experience about the group and the regime: if you\u2019re in, you\u2019re in, and if you\u2019re not in, no one cares about you. That put my mind at ease that my cricket was going to be more enjoyable going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was asking for help and pretty much all I got was that I care too much and I need to chill out a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Livingstone remains in demand on the franchise circuit, with a \u00a31m Indian Premier League deal from Sunrisers Hyderabad and a \u00a3350,000 bid from London Spirit at the Hundred auction last week, and retains confidence in his abilities at the highest level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still believe I\u2019m one of the best players in white-ball cricket in England. Just because I\u2019m not playing for England, because of a couple of people\u2019s opinions, it doesn\u2019t mean that I\u2019m not good enough to do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On his absence from the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka and India, where Will Jacks performed well<\/a> in Livingstone\u2019s old role, he said: \u201cI didn\u2019t miss it one bit. There wasn\u2019t any part of me that was wishing I was playing in that team, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liam Livingstone has given a scathing account of his handling by the current England regime, claiming \u201cno one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-479223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}