Bidding adieu to international cricket on Monday (June 10) after an illustrious 19-year-long career for India, Yuvraj Singh felt emotional and overwhelmed by all the support in thick and thins of life, before saying it is perhaps the right time to move on.
"After 25 years in and around the 22 yards and almost 17 years of international cricket on and off, I have decided to move on. This game taught me how to fight, how to fall, to dust off, to get up again and move forward," he said at a press conference in Mumbai.
"I was extremely lucky to play 400 games for India. I could have never imagined it when I first started playing cricket."
One of country's greatest ever limited overs batsmen also thanked fellow players, family and friends for their support throughout his stay.
"It was a love-hate relationship with this game. I can’t explain what it really means to me. This game taught me to fight. I have failed more times than I succeeded and I will never give up."
"I think it’s the perfect day to move on. This has been a wonderful journey and see you on the other side."
Yuvraj hailed winning the 2011 World Cup and receiving the "Player-of-the-tournament" for his 362 runs and 15 wickets across nine games as the biggest achievement of his career. "To be a part of history that was made after 28 years, what more could I ask for," he said.
The 37-year-old also gave away his future plans. He would "definitely want to play more cricket" by the virtue of T20 leagues around the world, besides the IPL. Yuvraj wants to "go and have fun" if allowed to take part in such leagues by the Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) now that he is officially retired. But coaching self-admittedly is not among his future plans.
"I will enjoy for two-three years. Don’t put me in coaching yet. I would like to come back and give something back to cricket. Hopefully will do some work with the younger generation. Want to dedicate my life to improve society – whether through cancer detection or cricket," he said.
Yuvraj also said Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni were the two best Indian captains that he played under.
"Sourav Ganguly, the captain I made my debut against, I got a lot of support from. We won a lot of trophies with MS DShoni so these two captains played a big role."
"(Ganguly) He was very authoritative when he wanted players to build a team…MS Dhoni was very composed under pressure and had a very good mind behind the stumps how the game was going. Very special captains both of them," he concluded.
(Inputs from Indian Express)
