India’s legendary spinner Harbhajan Singh announced his retirement from all formats of cricket today through a Youtube video and a heartfelt message on his social media handles. The heroics of Bhajji won us many crucial games and he will definitely go down as one of the very bests in Indian cricket. However, the last few years in his career was full of ups and downs and he has made a big statement after retiring today in which he said that he had made up his mind on retiring long ago and was waiting for the right moment to do so.
Harbhajan Singh’s downfall started back in 2016 when he started to be inactive at the International stages. He thus mentioned that he had already retired in many ways and this was just a formal goodbye.
“There comes a time in your life when you must take some tough decisions and move ahead. I have been meaning to make this announcement for the last few years, but I was waiting for the right moment to share it with all of you: today, I am retiring from all formats of cricket,” he said. “In many ways, I had already retired as a cricketer but hadn’t been able to make a formal announcement.
“I haven’t been an active cricketer for a while. But I had a commitment to Kolkata Knight Riders and wanted to spend the (2021) IPL season with them. But during the season itself, I had made up my mind to retire.”
“My journey from the streets of Jalandhar to become the Turnabator for Team India has been a beautiful one. There is no bigger motivation for me in life than stepping out on the field, wearing the India jersey,” he added.
“I was delighted when I took the hat-trick in Kolkata, I was the first Indian cricketer to take a Test hat-trick. In that series, I picked up 32 wickets in 3 matches, it remains a record till now. After that, the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 World Cup victories remain very important for me. I can’t forget these memories forever in my life. I can’t express in words how much joy those victories brought for me.”
He ended his statement on a rather emotional note.
“In this journey, I met a lot of people that very few have the opportunity to. Some of them have become friends and some of them have become family. Cricket was, is and will always be an important part of my life. I have served Indian cricket for years, and will continue to strive to serve them in the future. I have no idea about the future, but whatever I am today is because of cricket. I will be immensely happy if I can be of help to Indian cricket in any role in the future,” Bhajji concluded.