Of all the modern cricketers India has produced, none has had a family story quite as dramatic as Yuvraj Singh. The Chandigarh-born middle-order left-hander who hit six sixes off a single Stuart Broad over in the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, who was named Man of the Tournament at the 2011 ODI World Cup, and who fought back from a rare germ-cell lung cancer to play again for India — is one of Indian cricket's most beloved figures. Behind every six sat a deeply intense Punjabi cricket family: a former Test cricketer father whose relationship with his son became the most public father-son cricket conflict in modern times, a remarkable mother, a brother, and an actress-model wife who arrived in his life via a Salman Khan film set.

The Family's Roots: The Sikh Family of Chandigarh

The Singh family belongs to the Punjabi Sikh community. Yuvraj was born in Chandigarh on 12 December 1981.

His Father: Yograj Singh — The Test Cricketer Father

Yograj Singh played a single Test for India (against New Zealand in 1981) and six ODIs. After his international career ended early, he transitioned into Punjabi cinema, acting in dozens of films. He is also, famously, the man who drove his son's cricket education with relentless intensity throughout Yuvraj's childhood — early-morning practice sessions, gym work in the freezing Chandigarh winters, and a no-excuses approach that has been the subject of both gratitude and difficult reflection by Yuvraj in his memoir The Test of My Life.

Yograj and Yuvraj's mother divorced when Yuvraj was a teenager.

His Mother: Shabnam Singh

Shabnam Singh was the parent who raised Yuvraj after the divorce and, in his telling, the parent who held his life together through the years of his most intense cricket training and through his cancer treatment in 2011–12 in Boston.

His Brother: Zorawar Singh

Yuvraj's younger brother Zorawar Singh is also from cricket and golf circles in Chandigarh.

His Wife: Hazel Keech — The British-Indian Actress

Hazel Keech, born 28 January 1988 in Essex, England, is an English-Indian actress, model, and yoga instructor. She is of Mauritian-Indian heritage on her mother's side. She moved to India in the early 2010s and appeared in Bollywood films including Bodyguard (2011, with Salman Khan).

Yuvraj and Hazel met through mutual friends in Mumbai and began dating in 2014. They married twice in November 2016 — once in a Sikh ceremony in Chandigarh and once in a Hindu ceremony in Goa.

Their Son: Orion Keech Singh

Yuvraj and Hazel have one son, Orion Keech Singh, born on 22 January 2024. The couple has been deliberately careful about not over-exposing him to the public.

The Singh Family Tree at a Glance

Community / Origins

  • Punjabi Sikh community
  • Family home: Chandigarh

Parents

  • Father: Yograj Singh (b. 25 March 1958) — Indian Test cricketer (1 Test, 6 ODIs); Punjabi film actor
  • Mother: Shabnam Singh — homemaker

Siblings

  • Yuvraj Singh (b. 12 December 1981) — cricketer
  • Zorawar Singh — younger brother

Yuvraj Singh

  • Born 12 December 1981, Chandigarh
  • DAV Senior Secondary School, Chandigarh
  • ODI debut: 3 October 2000 vs Kenya, Nairobi
  • Test debut: 16 October 2003 vs New Zealand, Mohali
  • 40 Tests; 304 ODIs; ICC T20 World Cup 2007 — six sixes off Stuart Broad's over
  • ICC Men's Player of the Tournament, 2011 ODI World Cup (362 runs + 15 wickets)
  • Diagnosed with germ-cell mediastinal seminoma in 2011; treated at Boston's IU Simon Cancer Center; returned to international cricket in September 2012
  • Padma Shri (2014), Arjuna Award (2012)
  • Founder, YouWeCan Foundation (cancer awareness)

Wife: Hazel Keech

  • Born 28 January 1988, Essex, England
  • British-Mauritian-Indian heritage
  • Bollywood actress / model / yoga instructor
  • Married Yuvraj November 2016

Children

  • Orion Keech Singh (b. 22 January 2024)

The 2011 World Cup and the Cancer Recovery

Yuvraj's 2011 World Cup tournament — 362 runs, 15 wickets, and 4 Man-of-the-Match awards — culminated in India's first ODI World Cup win since 1983. Photos of him weeping in his mother's arms after the final at the Wankhede have become some of the most iconic images in Indian cricket.

Months later, doctors discovered he had been playing the entire tournament with a rare germ-cell mediastinal seminoma — a cancer between his lungs. He underwent chemotherapy in Boston, lost his hair, and returned to international cricket in September 2012 — an extraordinary recovery story that has since inspired millions through his YouWeCan Foundation.

What the Singh Family Story Teaches Us

The Yuvraj Singh story is the modern Punjabi family story written at its most emotionally complete. A driven Test-cricketer father whose intensity made his son a champion and also caused decades of complicated father-son conversation. A mother who held the household together after divorce and through cancer. An English actress wife who chose to make India home. A son born after the comeback that nearly never happened.

For every family — large or small, famous or otherwise — the Yuvraj story carries the same lesson. Difficult relationships still belong on the tree. Divorced parents still belong on the tree. The people who showed up during cancer still belong on the tree. Write them down. The fullest map of a family is one that holds all of its truth — the hard parts and the beautiful parts equally.

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