Yuvraj Singh, India’s 2011 World Cup and 2007 T20 World Cup winner, opened up about how he was treated during the end of his career. Yuvraj, who made his debut in 2000 at the age of 18, played his last match for India in 2017. He announced his retirement in June 2019 from all forms of the game.
He felt mistreated by the board during the last few months of his career and thinks he deserved a better farewell than he got. Though Yuvraj said that he didn’t mind not getting a farewell, he would have enjoyed being treated with a little more respect at the end of his international career.
“First of all, I don’t think I’m a legend. I’ve played the game with integrity but I didn’t play much Test cricket. Legendary players are those who have good Test records. For giving somebody a farewell, that’s not for me to decide, that’s for BCCI to decide,” Yuvraj said on Sportskeeda’s ‘Free Hit’ show.
He also stated that the way the board manages cricketers at the end of their careers is very unprincipled and disrespecting. He named Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, and Zaheer Khan as an example of players who were badly mismanaged by the authorities.
“I just felt that the way they managed me towards the end of my career was very unprofessional. But looking back at a couple of great players like Harbhajan, Sehwag, and Zaheer Khan, also very badly mismanaged. So it is part of Indian cricket, I had seen it in the past and I was not really surprised,” Yuvraj added.
Apart from these three, he also felt that Gautam Gambhir and VVS Laxman were dealt in a harsh manner by the BCCI despite giving it all for the Indian cricket. He said that the cricketers who give their life to the game should be honored properly in the future.
“But in the future, anybody who has played for India for a long time and has been through tough situations, you should definitely honor him. Give him that respect, somebody like Gautam Gambhir, who has won two World Cups for us. Sehwag, who has been the biggest match-winner after Sunil Gavaskar in Tests. VVS, Zaheer, also,” said the 2011 World Cup Player of the tournament winner.
