Yuvraj Singh shares his inspiring journey – and a few pranks – with Humans of Bombay
"When life knocks down you have a choice — to get up," shared Yuvraj Singh with
the Humans of Bombay on Facebook.
In this Facebook post, Yuvraj Singh bares his heart about his inspiring journey. (Source: Humans of Bombay/Facebook)
Every time we look at celebrities on screen or meet them in person, we have a general tendency to overlook their journeys full of struggles, hits and misses. With this post on Facebook, Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh shared his journey with the world. The left-hand batsman is known as much for his amazing performance on field as he’s known for his battle with cancer, which he successfully won.
Humans of Bombay — a photo blog on social media that captures the lives of people in Mumbai got Singh to talk. He spoke about his childhood — when he used to rush to the playground when the school bell rang, only to return home for dinner. When he got a gold medal in skating at the age of 10, his father Yograj Singh, also a cricketer, understood he’d rather play sports than study. “I understand you can’t study but if you love sports so much at least take one that can get you somewhere…focus on cricket,” Singh still remembered his father advising him this. That’s how it started.
Even though Singh struggled while chasing his dream, he knew one thing — that he wanted to play for India. The fire in him never died down. Singh said his real turning point was when he performed better than ever in the Under 19 World Cup. “I remember at that point, I would watch Tendulkar and Ganguly on my television set and know on every fibre of my being that someday I would be out there playing with them— I felt it, I knew it; I believed it,” Singh has said in the post. And when he finally got down to doing it in his first international game in 2000, he remembered how they soon turned into family.
And his infamous pranks found their place to stay in the team’s dressing room too. Even Sourav Ganguly was not spared. Singh explained how one such prank had Ganguly chasing him and Harbhajan Singh on the field with a bat in his hand!
Read his entire post here.
“Most of my childhood was spent outdoors - either playing cricket, football, tennis or skating. I wasn’t very good at studies, as soon as the school bell rang, I would be out on the field until dinner time! My tryst with full time cricket began in a funny way — I won the gold medal in only one sport when I was around 10 years old and that was in skating! My father sat me down that day and said, ‘I understand you can’t study but if you love sports so much at least take one tha...
The post shows how Singh has taken all the low-points in his stride. He believes failures are inevitable. “One cannot always live up to the expectations when a nation of 1.2 billion people wants you to win every single game,” he said.
Because of the dedication and love he has for the game, he said how he even chose to be in denial about his deteriorating health first. “When life knocks down you have a choice — to get up. So I thought to myself -‘get up and do it again’,” he said about his fight with cancer.
The all-rounder cricketer runs YouWeCan Foundation — a venture for creating awareness about cancer, prevention and raising funds. He sponsors the entire education of 25 kids who’s parents don’t have the funds. “When I met them and they told me about their ambitions, I knew that this is what I want to continue doing— give back and help them make a ‘come back’, just like I did,” Singh said.
The post has gone viral since it was uploaded on August 26 and has been shared nearly 2,000 times at the time of writing.
