Yuvraj Singh ends cricket roller-coaster

Yuvraj Singh, a winner of two World Cup titles who overcame cancer and a drop in form to fight his way back into India’s national side, announced yesterday that he is retiring from cricket. “It was a great roller coaster ride and beautiful story but it has to come to an end. It was the right time to go,” the 37-year-old left-hand batsman told a press conference in Mumbai. At his peak, Yuvraj was a rip-roaring batsman.

He hit 14 centuries in one-day internationals and bludgeoned England’s Stuart Broad for six sixes in one over at the 2007 World Twenty20. “I have been playing international cricket on and off for 17 years. Now it is time to say goodbye,” he said, at times fighting back tears as he made the announcement. “Cricket has given me everything and that’s why I am standing here,” he said. “It’s been a love-hate relationship. It taught me how to fall, how to fight, how to get up again.

“I am proud of what I have achieved on and off the field.” One of the cleanest strikers of the ball and a middle-order lynchpin, Singh played the last of his 304 one-day internationals two years ago. He played a key role in India’s World Twenty20 triumph in 2007 and was player-of-the-tournament -- scoring four fifties and a century -- when India won the 50-over World Cup in 2011.

A few weeks later, Singh was diagnosed with a rare lung cancer. “It was a harsh reality...(but) I was not going to let that disease defeat me,” said Singh. Although he fought back to play again, he was not able to match his high-scoring skills.