Yuvraj Singh is undoubtedly one of the greatest match-winners ever to represent India. He was a distinguished member of the squad that won the World Cup in 2011, and T20 World Cup in 2007 and many other trophies.
A great career spanning across nearly two decades and playing a crucial role in some of the most critical, era-defining matches for the team deserves nothing less than a grand farewell.
But, the southpaw didn’t even get a farewell match and announced his retirement in 2019, two years after he played his last ODI for India.
In a recent interview with Sportskeeda, Yuvraj opened up about how he was treated ‘very unprofessionally’ by BCCI during the twilight of his career. He further remarked BCCI even mismanaged other great players like Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.
“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,” said Yuvraj.
“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.
The 38-years-old wants BCCI to honour the great players and recognise their effort in future.
“But in the future, anybody who has played for India for a long time and has been through tough situations, you should definitely honour 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. Zaheer, who has 350 wickets, Laxman… and all these guys,” concluded Yuvraj.
