MANCHESTER: England batsman Liam Livingstone’s time abroad was cut short by the coronavirus Covid-19 outbreak, but he was at least able to return to the country in good time before borders started to shut.

Livingstone was rounding off what for him had been a busy winter playing T20 cricket overseas, with his time with Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League coming after spells with Cape Cobras and Perth Scorchers in South Africa and Australia respectively.

The 26-year-old Lancashire star was due to play in Peshawar’s final league-round match against Multan Sultans in Karachi on March 13 in a competition that ultimately ended up being cut short because of the pandemic accelerating.

Livingstone made the decision to go home after talking with other overseas players in the competition which included his fellow England internationals Alex Hales, James Vince, Liam Dawson, Tom Banton, Lewis Gregory and Tymal Mills.

Livingstone said on Friday: “We weren’t actually told we needed to get back [from Pakistan]. We were kind of oblivious to it all out there because you don’t really watch many news programmes so it was only from speaking to my family and my girlfriend back home that we realized that it was getting more serious.

“As soon as we heard about countries maybe closing their borders and stuff, we decided it was time to get back before that happened.

“We basically got in a room one night [at the teams’ hotel] and just said it was probably the right time for us to get home and we flew out the next afternoon.

“It all happened a little bit quickly but when it becomes a life or death situation, your health matters more than two or three more games of cricket, so we just decided as a group that it was best for us to head home.”

On having some of his countrymen in the same boat, Livingstone added: “It’s always nice to have people in the same situation because you feel less like you’re on your own and people just wanted to be with their family.”

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2020