Liam Livingstone reveals England career came to an end after two 60-second phone calls with Brendon McCullum and Rob Key

Former England star Liam Livingstone has torn into the current set-up and indicated he didn’t want to be called up to the recent T20 World Cup.

Across a sparkling international career, the all-rounder racked up exactly 100 caps for England across all three formats.

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The majority of those appearances for England were in either T20s or ODIs, where he became known for his quick run scoring and handy knack of taking wickets as an off-spinner.

However, under Brendon McCullum and Rob Key, he saw his game time drastically reduce.

He hasn’t played for his country in any format since the Champions Trophy in 2025, and the only contact he has had with the pair has been two phone calls lasting less than a minute, where he was essentially told his England career was over with his Central Contract not being renewed.

In a shocking interview with ESPNCricinfo, Livingstone slammed the set up.

England made the semi-finals of the most recent T20 World Cup only to lose to India.

But Livingstone wasn’t even remotely bothered that he missed it.

He said: “I didn’t miss it one bit. There wasn’t any part of me that was wishing I was playing in that team, to be honest.”

The Lancashire star was particularly baffled about the lack of communication before his Central Contract was removed.

“I don’t think it [the call] would have reached a minute. I asked why; they said they wanted to try someone else. That was off Baz. Wrighty [outgoing selector Luke Wright] didn’t reach out, and Brooky [captain Harry Brook] sent me a text.

“That probably sums that group up as a collective. Keysy said nothing – [he] said I’ll 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’t hear off him until the end of September.

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“That was a bit of an eye-opening experience about the group and the regime: if you’re in, you’re in, and if you’re not in, no-one cares about you. That put my mind at ease that my cricket was going to be more enjoyable going forward.”

Livingstone’s last England appearance was at the doomed Champions Trophy, and he has revealed that he was told to take everything less seriously.

England produced a dreadful Champions Trophy performance, and Livingstone struggled, but when he asked for help from the coaches, he didn’t get much.

“I 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, and everything will take care of itself,” he revealed.

“Where I come from, it’s not an easy route to get to play for your country.

“For someone to keep telling you that you care too much is… it’s probably a bit way off the mark, to be honest, with what you go through and parents sacrificing so much for years on end to get you to realise your dream.

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“When things don’t go right, of course you’re going to care; if I didn’t care, then I probably wouldn’t want to play the sport.

“I thought I had a really good summer, leading into the winter when we went to the West Indies. Obviously, things didn’t go well in India and Pakistan, but they weren’t going well for anyone.

“I was just trying to ask for help to get better: What do they see that isn’t going right? You’d hit a couple out of the middle of the bat and they’d go, ‘Great, you found it. Let’s go back to the hotel.’

“It wasn’t the most enjoyable experience for me. If you’re asking me about my hopes going forward, all I would say is I want to enjoy playing cricket, and I’m not going to do something that isn’t enjoyable.”

Damning

Livingstone’s interview is a scathing assessment of how he believes English cricket is being governed.

It follows a shambolic Ashes Tour, in which the tourists were thrashed 4-1 by a weak Australia side.

There were also numerous drinking incidents that happened while the players were away.

There was also Harry Brook hitting a bouncer while the ODI team were in New Zealand.