Yuvraj Singh playing against England. ( Express photo by Kevin D’Souza).
Former Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh revealed that he felt mistreated by the Indian cricket board towards the end of his glittering career. Yuvraj made his debut at the age of 18 in 2000 and went on to play his last match for India in 2017. Thereafter he announced his retirement in 2019.
While southpaw does not mind that he did not get a farewell, what he would have liked is a bit more respect.
“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.
“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,” he added.
“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,” he remarked.
Yuvraj Singh was a veteran of 40 Test matches, 304 ODIs, and 58 T20 Internationals for India.
He was also the chief architect of India’s triumphs in the 2007 World T20 and 2011 World Cup.