I had a point to prove to myself: Yuvraj

He was India's most dependable player in the World Cup and was aptly named the Man of the Tournament. NDTV caught up with Yuvraj Singh after the historic win in Mumbai which he dedicated to master batsman Sachin Tendulkar. Here are the excerpts of the exclusive interview:

NDTV: I am with the hottest person in the world right now, Yuvraj. It is a very cliche question that how are you feeling right now, but I think it is the most apt question to ask right now?

Yuvraj: I just can't express my feelings because we have won the World Cup, its every Indians dream to win the World Cup and Indians living abroad. So it's just unbelievable what happened yesterday and our dream has finally come true.

NDTV: I spoke to you before the tournament and you told me you are going through a low phase and that you were almost going to quit the game. Me and 1.6 billion people want to thank you for not quitting the game.

Yuvraj: When things are not going right for you, you feel like why I am doing this but then you want to come back and prove a point to myself rather than people, prove to myself that I am still worth it. You know sometimes you play and do not realise about things happening around you, sometimes I feel a bad phase is a good phase for you, just to teach you a lesson that you got to honour the logo on the cap, so just playing for your country, so just realising those things and fighting hard in bad times and being a strong person.

NDTV: Many say that the locket of yours is your lucky charm, That Om locket, is that so if you feel like that too?

Yuvraj: It's just something that comes into your mind when you wake up, its shanti basically.. I have learnt over the years, and I see it over my neck and feel good everyday and I am in a good calm space to go out and play everyday. I think that it really helps me.

NDTV: Lot of speculation that Sachin has played his last ODI game, but we at NDTV are going to start a poll saying that he still plays ODIs...would you join that too?

Yuvraj: Well it's up to the man about what he wants to do, the only thing left in his career was his World Cup win and now that we have won the cup, I guess it's the happiest moment of his life, of our lives so the whole team wanted to do it for Sachin, myself specially.. I feel that a guy who has played for 20 years deserves to win a World Cup. So now I think it's his call, but hopefully he plays... we don't want to let him go.

NDTV: You said about a special person, was that Sachin?

Yuvraj: When we were going off the field the first thing I saw were tears in his eyes and I could see what it means to him. The emotions were coming out, our dream came true. You know when a dream turns to reality, it's just an emotion that comes out and you can't explain it.

NDTV: Looking at Sachin with tears in his eyes, do you think it was a bigger moment than winning the World Cup?

Yuvraj: Definitely, Man of the Tournament, I am really happy for that but most important was winning the tournament... and when we won the World Cup, I saw the happiness in his eyes and of the fans and that gave me a lot of satisfaction.