IPL team owners ‘obviously have a say’ in selection of XI: Liam Livingstone

“I think there are three ways in the IPL. You are either playing, locked in and everything is kind of set out for you. There’s like a fringe where you may or may not. And your thoughts are, ‘If I play, this is how it’s going to go.’ Me this year, when I went there we got a lad in the auction that Mumbai Indians really wanted but we had more money, so we ended up getting him. The owners loved him. So he was locked in to play for us. When we didn’t have Cummins, we were playing only three overseas (players). So I asked Dan (Head coach Dan Vettori), why we are playing only three overseas?” Livingstone said in the Stick to Cricket podcast.

“He was like, ‘the owners love this lad. When Cummins comes back in we are not going to change our thing’. Which is great. I knew that I was not going to play unless somebody got injured. So then it’s a completely different mindset when you know, you are not going to play.'”

Livinstone said that he wasn’t sure if it is fair to say that the team owners have the final say in how the playing eleven should like but they have an influence. He also appreciated Vettori for telling him exactly what the situation is. “I don’t know if they call the shots fully but they obviously have a say. But I guess the biggest thing for me this year from Dan Vettori was that he told me what was happening. I knew,” Livingstone said.