He thanked Sourav Ganguly, his first international captain, for giving him the chance to play. He also thanked his idol Sachin Tendulkar who has been a great source of support for the cricketer.
He thanked Sourav Ganguly, his first international captain, for giving him the chance to play. He also thanked his idol Sachin Tendulkar who has been a great source of support for the cricketer.
During the press conference he said: "As I go back in times today, my life has been like a roller coaster ride. Winning the 2011 World Cup, being man of the series, four Man of the Match awards was all like a dream, which was followed by a harsh reality - getting diagnosed of cancer. It was like touching the sky and then falling down at light speed and hitting the ground hard. As All this happened so quickly and that too when I was at the peak of my career."
"But in that moment, everyone I knew, to whom I mattered, stood together for me; my fans, my friends and family. I would also like to thank the BCCI and BCCI president at that time Mr N Srinivasan for their support in my treatment. Thank You to both my Doctors – Dr Rohatgi who took me for the treatment to Dr. Lawrence H Einhorn in US who also treated Lance Armstong."
1. Warm welcomes
)
2. Cricket has given everthing he says
)
"Cricket has given me everything I have and is the reason why I stand here today. It was such a love-hate relationship with the sport. In retrospect, I don’t think I hated this game because the love I have for it today which will remain constant until the end of life."
"I can’t really explain it in words what is that feeling, this game taught me how to fight, how to fall, to dust myself off, to get up again and move forward," he added.
3. Never gave up!
)
"He then went on to say, I have failed more times than I have succeeded but I never gave up and will never give up till my last breath, and that’s what cricket taught me. I gave my blood and sweat to the game, once I got into it, especially when it came to representing my country."
"And To my true fans who have always supported me endlessly, I can’t thank you enough specially when the times were tough."
4. YouWeCan
)
He then said: "This brings me to my next focus in life, which is to help Cancer patients through my foundation YouWeCan. At YouWeCan we spread awareness about cancer and help the underprivileged by conducting screening camps, funding their treatments and sponsoring education to underprivileged cancer survived kids."
"We have also started our own merchandising arm YWC for the foundation to help generate funds for the cause. I really want to make a difference to the society by setting example through my inspiring story."
"On a lighter note, I would say I am extremely lucky to play 400+ games for India, I for one, would have not imagined doing this when I started my career as a cricketer. Through this journey, some matches that remain in my memory were the 2002 NatWest final, my first test hundred in Lahore in 2004, the 2007 Test series in England, of course, the six sixes at the 2007 T20 World Cup and then the most memorable was 2011 World Cup finals."
5. For India!
)
"I played with some great teams like Pakistan winning and losing in 2004, 2006 & 2007 with Australia, losing to them in 2003 WC finals and beating them in 2007 WC t20 semi-finals and again beating them in 20011 quarter finals. These were some epic battles and I’ll always cherish these memories for rest of my life.
The adrenaline rush playing for India, singing the national anthem before each game, touching the Indian flag, stopping every run for the team or scoring every run for the team was a completely different high. To be a part of the history that was made after 28 years, I mean honestly what more could I ask for."
6. The goodbye
)
He finished off by saying:
"Last and most importantly, I would like to thank my family, my mother who is present here today; my loving mother who has been the pillar of my strength and I feel has given me birth twice, my loving wife hazel who stood by me in my tough times and my close friends who get sick of me but are always there for me, everybody who I love is here today except my dad thank me my friends in media that he is not here today and just his message (lol)."
"I think it’s a perfect day to move on."
"Last but not the least thank you to all my well-wishers in media for capturing this lovely journey !!! And a very special thank you to the entire team of Endemol for putting this film together and the entire team of Wizcraft for putting the on ground event together."
"Thank You once again for being with me and I hope you accompany me in my next journey. See you on the other side."
