File image of Yuvraj Singh
Former Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh on Sunday criticised the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for poorly managing the end of his career. He opined that he did not want a farewell match but felt that he deserved a little more respect.
It was in June last year that Yuvraj had announced his international retirement, almost two years after his last appearance for India.
“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," he told Sportskeeda.
Not just for him, Yuvraj pointed out that the 'unprofessional' handling has been regular with the BCCI amongst the veteran players and hence he was not surprised when he incurred the same.
“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, 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.
“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. VVS, Zaheer, also,” said the southpaw.
Yuvraj played 40 Tests, 304 ODIs and 58 T20I matches for India scoring 1900, 8701 and 1177 runs respectively.
