'Didn’t feel respected': Yuvraj Singh reveals reason behind his retirement
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Yuvraj Singh Photograph: (AFP)
Yuvraj Singh will always be remembered as a cricketing hero, but his words show that his retirement was strongly linked to his mental health, not just his performance on the field.
Yuvraj Singh is regarded as one of India’s greatest cricketers and played a crucial role in India’s T20 World Cup triumph in 2007 and the ODI World Cup win in 2011. He was also named Player of the Tournament in 2011 under captain MS Dhoni. However, after battling cancer, his career never returned to the same level and in June 2019, he retired from international cricket after missing out on selection for the World Cup squad. Yuvraj last played for India in an ODI against West Indies in June 2017 and after that, he was not selected again. Nearly seven years after retiring, he has now spoken openly about why he decided to quit and expressed that he felt he was no longer respected or supported, which made him step away from the game.
While speaking on a podcast with former tennis player Sania Mirza, Yuvraj shared that he kept asking himself why he was playing when he was not enjoying it. He felt mentally and physically exhausted and believed he could not give more. Once he stopped playing, he finally felt like himself again.
"I was not enjoying my game. I had a feeling that why am I playing cricket when I'm not enjoying it? I was not feeling supported. I was not feeling respected," Yuvraj said.
"And I felt, why do I need to do this when I don't have this? Why am I lingering on to something that I'm not enjoying? Why do I need to play? To prove what? I can't do more than this, mentally or physically, and it was hurting me. And the day I stopped, I was myself again," he added.
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Yuvraj also spoke about facing doubts earlier in life. He recalled an incident from his teenage years when someone made a comment about his ability. While it did not affect him much, but his father, Yograj Singh was deeply hurt by it.
Yuvraj Singh made his India debut in 2000 and went on to serve the national team for 18 years. He represented India in 40 Tests, 304 ODIs and 58 T20Is, scoring 1,900, 8,701 and 1,177 runs respectively. During his time in international cricket, he registered 17 centuries and 71 half-centuries.