Today Yuvraj Singh announced his retirement.
He was known to typify the man who walked on the field with swagger, played with flamboyance, and displayed ability that borders on genius.
One has to be a genius, to hit 6 sixers for 6 balls in a crucial T20 World Cup game against England. I loved watching Yuvraj Singh but felt a little disappointed because he never got going in test match cricket. His full bat swing often reminded people of the grainy at times footage of the Gary Sobers, the West Indian great.
Yuvraj Singh started to get patch during the 2008-2010 years and often was in and out of the team. He was one of India’s best fielders but those skills had started to wane. Then came 2011 and the World Cup championship was held in South Asia. Yuvraj played as a cricketer possessed. One could see he might have calculated this is his last World Cup and he wanted it.
The pressures of playing in front of massive home crowds, the team managed to win lift the trophy. Yuvraj was the man of the series. He won several games for India with bat and ball.
But the triumph around Yuvraj came to a screeching halt.
News trickled out that Yuvraj had been sick during the tournament. There was something possibly seriously wrong with his health. As it turned out, it was lung cancer. Yuvraj Singh started his treatment and possibly no cricket fan expected anything but him to just make it out alive. His photos during chemo and then the recovery were inspiring. He seemed to be keeping great spirits and being a good example of how to fight cancer and be a survivor.
But that was not enough. He started training and soon over the year, he was playing domestic cricket again. He looked younger, fitter, and a lot more lighter than he was in the later 2010s. His power-hitting had not showed any signs of decline and he did make it back to the Indian team.
Yuvraj Singh is probably India’s most inspiring cricketer simply for that reason. Ofcourse then he also was a champion cricketer.
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