Yuvraj Singh, the legendary Indian limited-overs specialist who retired in 2019, has clarified his decision to steer clear of the broadcasting booth. While many of his former teammates have transitioned into live commentary, Yuvraj has chosen to dedicate his time to coaching and various business interests instead.
In a recent discussion on Sports Tak, the cricketing icon shared that his hesitation stems from past experiences with specific individuals in the media industry. He explained that he feels uncomfortable working alongside those who shifted their focus from his performance on the field to making personal remarks.
“Now that I have retired, I’ll say this,” Singh stated. “People who have talked about me, not on cricket, but made personal comments about me. I think if you talk about someone’s game, it’s understandable, it’s a game. When you get personal, those comments stick forever with you. I don’t want to sit and do commentary with people who have made personal comments about me. That’s the reason I don’t want to do commentary. Commentary is a great place to talk about the game. But that’s one reason I don’t want to do it.”
Mentorship and Player Development
Beyond his business ventures, Yuvraj has become a vital mentor for the next generation of cricketers. He has been instrumental in the development of Punjab-based players like Abhishek Sharma and Prabhsimran Singh. His mentorship also extended to Sanju Samson during a challenging phase in the wicketkeeper-batter’s career leading up to the 2026 T20 World Cup.
Yuvraj detailed a specific technical intervention he made to help Samson regain his form and confidence:
“Coming to Sanju Samson, who failed in 8-10 innings, was going through failure. That’s where you need to say, I need to change something. Sanju had reached that stage where he felt he was not finding a place in the XI. He had scored two hundreds in South Africa, so I felt… the conversation I had with him happened in 2024 when India won that World Cup in Barbados. In that World Cup, Sanju was not playing. I had been watching his batting for 2-3 IPL seasons. I told him we would speak whenever he had time.”
“So my issue with Sanju was, you have to improve your footwork. If you don’t improve your footwork, you will consistently land in trouble. Scoring runs or not is different, but you have to improve your footwork. I gave him some ideas on how to improve it,” Yuvraj added.
