Veteran England all-rounder Liam Livingston is set for selection for the national cricket team, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) managing director Rob Key confirmed, days after the cricketer’s explosive comments on the board’s management.
During an interview with ESPNcricinfo, Livingston accused the ECB of not providing an explanation as to why he was not selected for the team. The all-rounder has not played for England since the Champions Trophy last year and lost his central contract in September.
Liam Livingston accuses England Cricket Board of poor communication
The cricketer claimed that he received a call from head coach Brendon McCullum and Key and was informed about the insult.
“I don’t think so [the call] Must have reached one minute. I asked why, and they said they wanted to try someone else. he was out of buzz [McCullum],” Liam Livingston said, describing the phone call.
“Keesey didn’t say anything – he said ‘I’ll talk to you in the summer’. I actually rang him one day, and he said he was busy at a test camp in Loughborough. And then I didn’t hear from him until the end of September.”
The ECB’s decision to drop Livingston from the squad came after the team’s poor performance in the Champions Trophy, where they lost all three of their matches before being eliminated. Livingston’s highest score in the campaign was only 14.
In a recent interview, Rob Key mentioned that Livingston is also in the running for a place in the team. There is no way that the talented 32-year-old cricketer will consider retiring from international cricket.
Livingston may be up for selection again
“Look, I’m not going to get into personal conversations. Obviously, there’s another side to that conversation as I saw it. That’s what I said to Liam at the end of a fairly stressful phone call, to say the least. [was that] “I don’t see any way that a player of Liam Livingstone’s caliber wouldn’t be up for selection for England,” Rob Key told Sky Sports.
Key also claimed that he had thought about the middle-order batsman for the white-ball series against Sri Lanka in January.
He said, “We discussed him for the Sri Lanka series. Liam Livingstone is a player who we would love to see give his best, score runs and then come back into the England team.”
He can be the captain of the team
The ECB managing director, referring to the ODI series against West Indies in late 2024, claimed that at one time he had thought of appointing Liam Livingston as the captain of the team.
“We thought as much about him [as] To make him captain at a time when we did not have all the senior players. We thought so highly of him. I still have a lot of time for Liam Livingstone and I don’t [reason] “One’s England career must be over at the age of 32,” Rob Key said.
Read more: “Not stupid”: Adam Gilchrist, Mark Waugh break silence on ECB not removing Brendon McCullum
