{"id":505536,"date":"2026-03-31T17:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T17:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/505536\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T17:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T17:08:08","slug":"rob-key-brendon-mccullum-backed-by-richard-gould-despite-ex-players-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/505536\/","title":{"rendered":"Rob Key &#038; Brendon McCullum backed by Richard Gould despite ex-players&#8217; criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bairstow, who has not played for England since 2024, said those in charge need to bring &#8220;the care back in the game&#8221;, adding &#8220;as soon as you are out of the system, you are out of the system&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espncricinfo.com\/story\/liam-livingstone-interview-i-asked-england-for-help-i-was-told-i-care-too-much-1528115\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Speaking to Cricinfo, external<\/a> earlier this month, Livingstone said &#8220;no-one cares&#8221; about those outside the inner circle and he was told he &#8220;cares too much&#8221; when asking for help. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He has not played for England since the Champions Trophy last March. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Topley said Livingstone was &#8220;kind&#8221; about the England management while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecricketer.com\/Topics\/premiumfeatures\/life_easier_ben_foakes_liberated_resentful_england.html?t=639101290866262002\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Foakes outlined, external<\/a> how reserve batter Keaton Jennings served as his wicketkeeping coach on one tour with no permanent specialist in place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The criticism has added to the debate around the England hierarchy but Gould rejected the idea negativity is overshadowing the start to the county season, which begins on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I really don&#8217;t agree with that,&#8221; Gould said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The start of a new season is always an exciting juncture. What you choose to write is up to you but we are looking at this in a positive fashion. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;You look at the numbers in the recreational game, the attendance levels, all of our metrics are up and positive. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Yes, we have had a difficult winter but that is a road bump we will get over.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bairstow, who has not played for England since 2024, said those in charge need to bring &#8220;the care&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-505536","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\/505536","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=505536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}