Yuvraj Singh—celebrated Indian cricketer, World Cup winner and cancer-survivor—has in recent disclosures opened up about a turbulent home life. He revealed that his relationship with his father, Yograj Singh (former cricketer and actor), was fraught with tension. Yuvraj admitted, “I used to hate my dad at those times.”
His father’s training regime and parenting style loomed large. Yuvraj recounted how his father’s friends called him “Hitler” for his strictness, how his father replaced a garden with cricket nets, and how Yuvraj would wake to a bucket of cold water under his quilt as part of the training punishment.
That relentless regimen and the constant fights between his parents weighed heavily on Yuvraj. By his own account, when he was about 14 or 15, the atmosphere was “getting tough” and he felt caught in the middle.
Suggesting separation as a solution
Strikingly, Yuvraj revealed that it was his idea for his parents to separate. He told them they should go their separate ways rather than continue in a household where the tension and conflict were harming everyone. “It wasn’t good for me, and I was also playing at the time,” he said.
The suggestion is unusual for a teenager—to not merely plead for peace, but to actively propose divorce. It illustrates how grave the domestic atmosphere had become for him: the internal stress, the feeling of having to choose sides, and the desire for a calmer environment.
Fear, resentment and retrospect
Beyond the suggestion of separation, Yuvraj spoke of fear and resentment. He noted that many in the colony believed his father “will kill me” — a dramatic way to articulate how harsh and oppressive the training – and the father‐figure – seemed from his vantage.
Yet he also acknowledged that those very experiences did contribute to his success: the sacrifices, the rigorous training, the discipline. “I think those sacrifices that I made, and the way he trained me, were the reason that I played for India at such a young age.”
So the relationship can be seen as deeply conflicted—resentment and fear on one side; gratitude and acknowledgement on the other.
Father’s perspective: ambition at a cost
Yograj himself, in earlier interviews, acknowledged that his ambition to make Yuvraj a cricketer came at a heavy cost to their family. He admitted to being a “tyrant” at home, implementing harsh rules in the belief that “You can only forge gold through fire.”
He said: “The day Yuvi hands his children over to me, they will meet the same fate as he did… There will be no mercy, because there is only one path… That’s what they fear, and that’s why we aren’t together.”
This framing—of ‘tough love’ as necessary discipline—contrasts sharply with Yuvraj’s felt experience of fear, resentment and ultimately the suggestion of separation.
