It didn’t take long for Yuvraj Singh to announce his arrival in international cricket. It has, however, taken nearly two decades filled with amazing highs and some agonising lows, for the all-rounder from Chandigarh to painfully bring the curtain down on his international and Indian Premier League career.
Considering the 37-year-old last donned the national team jersey in a One-Day International against West Indies two years ago, he would have known his days in the game were numbered. Not that it made departing from the scene any easy.
“After 25 years in and around 22 yards and almost 17 years of international cricket on and off, I have decided to move on. Thank you for taking the time out to be here and to support me,” an emotional Yuvraj told a huge media gathering, with his mother Shabnam and wife Hazel Keech also present.
“Biggest moment in my career would definitely be winning the 2011 World Cup and being man of the series. Winning it in India as well and after 28 years, there cannot be a bigger high,” he said, the admission, rather appropriately, coming at a downtown hotel not far away from the Wankhede Stadium where MS Dhoni’s famous six won India its second World Cup crown.
If that professional high was something that Yuvraj would have found hard to imagine becoming a reality as a young cricketer, surely nothing could have prepared him for the grave personal challenge he would soon confront when he was diagnosed with a cancerous tumour located between his lungs. “It was like touching the sky and then falling down at light speed and hitting the ground hard. As all this happened so quickly and that too when I was at the peak of my career.
“But in that moment, everyone I knew, to whom I mattered, stood together for me; my fans, my friends and family,” Yuvraj said.
Prior to reading out from a prepared statement during press gathering, a short video depicting Yuvraj’s rise as a cricketer was played which also shed light on the troubled relationship he shared with his father Yograj.
The two are seen having a frank conversation where Yuvraj reminds his dad about the harsh treatment he felt he was subjected to. “I spoke to him and all the demons inside me as a kid came out. It was a very peaceful moment for me to have that closure. I have never had that chat with him in the last 20 years. He’s always been like a dragon to me. Just confessing to the dragon was a very difficult time. We both have grown up,” Yuvraj said, before triggering laughter with a quick dig at his father. “I have grown up, I don’t know about him.”
For someone who was once hot property in the lucrative world of the IPL, Yuvraj’s stock had plummeted to the extent that Mumbai Indians snapped him up ahead of the 2019 season at his base price. He said he was now hoping to get the BCCI’s blessing to play in overseas T20 leagues. “I had decided last year that this IPL would be my last and I’ll give it my best shot.
“I want to go and play T20 cricket…But nobody wants to play me in IPL and I am not available for IPL. So it works both ways. I’m looking forward to going and playing outside India. At this age I can manage to play some kind of fun cricket. I want to go and enjoy my life.”
World Cup 2011 winning is highest point of my career: Yuvraj Singh
