And one fine day, they were gone. Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and even Virender Sehwag. Greats of the game, legends of Indian cricket but there was no farewell game. There wasn’t even a proper goodbye.
Sachin Tendulkar got a farewell series but many others weren’t as lucky and the fault, former India star Yuvraj Singh believes, lies with the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
“Giving someone a farewell, that’s not for me to decide. It’s up to the BCCI. But I felt the way that they managed me towards the end of my career, was very unprofessional,” Yuvraj told Sportskeeda in a video interview.
“But looking back at some of the great players from India – Harbhajan [Singh], [Virender] Sehwag, Zaheer Khan – were also badly mismanaged. It’s part of Indian cricket, I have seen that in the past so I wasn’t really surprised.”
Yuvraj, who announced his retirement in 2019, wants the BCCI to respect the greats even if they can’t finish their careers on a high.
“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,” said Yuvraj.
