“Sreesanth, party-sharty sab chhod do” - Former India pacer recalls inspiring advice from birthday boy Yuvraj Singh 

Former Team India pacer S Sreesanth has recalled a motivating advice he received as a youngster from Yuvraj Singh. While wishing the latter on his 42nd birthday on Tuesday, December 12, Sreesanth revealed that Yuvraj gave him the confidence that he can play for India and advised him to stop partying and focus harder on cricket.

Yuvraj is regarded as one of the legends of white-ball cricket. In 304 ODIs, he amassed 8,701 runs at an average of 36.55 and a strike rate of 87.67 with 14 hundreds and 52 fifties. Sreesanth made his international debut a few years after Yuvraj. Both were teammates during India’s 2007 [T20] and 2011 [ODI] World Cup triumphs.

Speaking to Sportskeeda, Sreesanth hailed Yuvraj for encouraging him as a youngster during a game. Yuvraj was playing a match for Indian Airlines, by which time he was an international star. On the other hand, Sreesanth was a rising domestic star.

Giving details of the story, the former India pacer recalled:

“I got to play the KSCA Trophy in Bangalore. I was playing a game for Indian Airlines and Yuvraj had also come to play that match. Laxman bhai [VVS Laxman] was also playing since it was the final. He [Yuvraj] watched my bowling during the match. He was standing at slip. I had put up a very good performance in that game."

“When I was sitting in the dressing room, this is around 2003, before I played for India; I was removing my spikes and was glancing at what Yuvi pa was doing. He called me and told me, ‘Sreesanth, sab chhod ke. Party-sharty sab chhod do. Ab cricket pe dhyan do. Aap India khel sakte ho’ [Sreesanth, stop partying and focus on cricket. You can play for India],” Sreesanth added.

The 40-year-old further said that coming from a big name like Yuvraj, the words meant a lot to him.

“[He told me] If you keep bowling like this in first-class cricket, you can play for India in the next 2-3 years. Don’t relax now. A player like Yuvraj didn’t need to say it to a 19-20 year old boy. Today, very few players do something like this. But Yuvi pa told me, you can play,” the former Kerala cricketer commented.

Sreesanth went on to play 27 Tests, 53 ODIs, and 10 T20Is for India from 2005 to 2011.

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“Wherever we won, all of them are special memories” - Sreesanth on playing with Yuvraj Singh

While Sreesanth placed the Indian Airlines incident on top of his list of special memories with Yuvraj, he admitted that he also enjoyed all the winning moments they shared as teammates.

“There are many special memories - the 2007 [T20] World Cup win, winning Tests in West Indies and South Africa. Wherever we won, all of them are special memories,” he stated.

He added that while his interaction with Yuvraj was limited during his Indian Airlines stint, it was very special.

“Obviously, Yuvraj and Bhajji pa [Harbhajan Singh] did not play all the matches for Indian Airlines. They only used to play the important games because they were busy playing for India,” he concluded.

Yuvraj was the Player of the Tournament for his brilliant all-round show when India won the ODI World Cup in 2011.