I love cricket and am the last person who would get involved in something like spot-fixing. Anyone who knows me will think twice before coming to me with such an offer. Because I don’t even listen to the captain before I play a match. I wouldn’t agree to do it even for Rs 100 crore.
The classical art of spin bowling, how you should bowl in Test match cricket, is disappearing.
England’s full of cricket tradition. I follow the game there hugely.
After cricket I’d love to build a family, I’d love to get close to someone and have kids, see them evolve into something special.
I have entered the sports equipment business with ‘Bhajji Sports.’ I am applying for ICC clearance so that cricket bats with ‘Bhajji Sports’ logos could be used for international matches. In domestic circuit, the Punjab team is already wearing Bhajji Sports dresses for the Ranji Trophy matches.
I sort of felt like the runt of the litter. My brother was just great. If you gave him a cricket bat he’d score 100. If he walked into a party he’d pull the best-looking girl. He was my hero.
Although I was good at my studies, I also thought to myself that I should play cricket as well. And when the cricket team that consisted of the boys from our village used to play, I was able to play with the team that had older players.
Age is just a number. If someone can perform at 45, who will stop that fellow from playing top-level cricket?
What was scaring me was if we lost, I didn’t know how I’d play cricket again. This was such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a World Cup final at Lord’s.
Respect is having respect for the people you play with and against, and respect for the shirt. Unity is about sticking together but also uniting the country. That was always the bigger cause for us, not just the cricket.
People have been saying life will change for us now but me? No chance. I may be a World Cup winner but I will always be the lad who played cricket with his friends and cousins in the park on Stoney Lane in south Birmingham using an old milk crate for stumps.
PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) is doing an unbelievable job in trying to resurrect international cricket. I just hope the World XI tour goes ahead and that will almost be the curtain raiser to, hopefully, get some international cricket back.
IPL is pure sport. The glitz and glamour is just 15 per cent. 85% is actually professional, hard cricket.
Once I am out of the ground, I forget cricket or keep it away as far as possible, to lighten up.
I was a sportsman and played cricket all my life.
It is a big challenge as a spinner to play modern day cricket, where you have to have five players in the circle.
For me, what is important is, as a legspinner, you need determination, especially in modern-day cricket. You need to feel that you can change a game.
I am always the one who is responsible for anything bad that happens in Indian cricket. Everything that happens is because of me.
I always wanted to play Test cricket, but people have only seen me in first-class cricket. I was always confident that, whenever I get a chance, I would be able to do well.
I made tons of runs and got an opportunity to play for Mumbai. Suddenly, people knew who I was, and the cameras were on me. Getting the recognition matters when you are playing school cricket.
The best player I’ve played with would be Graeme Swann, just because he’s proved that regular finger-spinners can take wickets in international cricket for England.
One-day cricket is a very important part of our play. We’ve got a long way to go until the next World Cup and for us it’s one ruthless game after another where we can play well.
I always breathe cricket.
I am very insecure because that’s how I have played cricket. Since Under-14, I was told, ‘If you don’t perform, you will be dropped.’ I have started living with this system.
It took a lot of sacrifice from my dad. He managed to put cricket nets in our garden because he knew we had to practise every day. That would also keep us away from the streets.
Does it make a difference if I score 8000 or 10,000 runs in Test cricket? Not in anybody’s life.
No one has ever doubted Kevin Pietersen’s abilities as a player, he has been a phenomenal player for England for a long period of time, his record stacks up to anyone’s in English cricket and he should be very proud of his record.
Cricket came about for me when my dad started throwing plastic balls to me at home. I was four or five.
I tend to think that cricket is the greatest thing that God ever created on earth – certainly greater than sex, although sex isn’t too bad either.
I want to play Test cricket until I die, seriously.
If I wasn’t doing this, I’d be working in a chippy. Cricket can change your life. It can teach you a lot about discipline and life in general.
A cricket ball broke my nose when I was a kid so I couldn’t breath through it. Before I had it operated on I used to stand on stage with my mouth slightly open.
From a small age, we used to play a lot of school cricket: 30-35 games in a year in school cricket, then Under-16 games.
Everyone who moves to New York City has a book or movie or song that epitomizes the place for them. For me, it’s ‘The Cricket in Times Square’, written by George Selden and illustrated by Garth Williams.
I respect Test cricket a lot. Once I got into the Test team, I learnt so much about international cricket and realised it’s not so different.
Peter Moores has been very popular in the England dressing room. He’s got a very good record of developing players but I felt that in some areas of international cricket he is a little bit exposed, around tactics and strategy.
Every player needs to be aware of the levels of fitness needed to play international cricket.
The way New Zealand played at the 2015 World Cup changed cricket. The way they went about it epitomised the way they are as a nation.
Nobody wants to really play bad cricket.
We want cricket to grow for kids, and for families to come and watch.
I enjoyed playing any type of cricket. Didn’t matter what type it was because I did not want to change my game. My game was built on one type of cricket: if there was a ball to hit, you hit it, whether it was Test matches, whatever it was.
I would love to play cricket today, with all – I am not just talking of money – the opportunity you get, the practice facilities, the amount of time you are able to put into preparation.
We always gave one-day cricket respect as players, definitely.
You have to see that cricket is developing as a sport because what’s very important is you want cricket to be a global sport when it comes to participation.
Like cricket has their ‘A’ team that plays against other international ‘A’ teams and get exposure. Hockey should also have a similar development squad, which can play in non-premium international tournament, while the national team plays in bigger meets. This way, we will have players ready with international exposure.
The best players of the world play in the IPL, and to bowl to them in T20 cricket isn’t easy.
If you are good at studies, and you want to play cricket, you may work harder than any other person, but you may not achieve it. So it’s something you have to balance in life and be practical where you are good and then channelise your efforts in the right direction to be successful in life.
I have loved cricket my whole life, from playing in the garden as a child, and will never underestimate how special it is to pull on an England shirt.
To represent your country is the ultimate honour, and to play Test cricket for India will be the ultimate fulfilment of my cricketing ambition.
Broadcasters realise there is a large percentage of women that watch cricket and it was the Caribbean Premier League that first got me to commentate a men’s international T20.
The wrestling is real, all the injuries are real, so much so that in no other sports, whether soccer or cricket or hockey, players get so many injuries as in WWE.
I prioritise different things at different times, so when a cricket tour is coming up, cricket takes priority. But then there are times when I need to focus on my studies. I think it’s good to have a balance.
I am fully aware that cricket is like a second religion in Pakistan.
I know Test cricket is more about endurance. T20 is more about innovating, creating, and the energy at the wicket.
School cricket is where we all start. The journey of a cricketer starts from there, and it was the same for me.
I think the more cricket you play, the more you will learn about yourself and learn about life in general.
It’s an interesting education to listen to cricket commentary when you’re not at the game. When you’re there, which is most of the time for me, it flows over you. But when you’re not there, you look at it in a slightly different way. You pick up things.
I was a bowler – left arm, smash it down as fast as I could. I did a lot of work with Damian D’Oliveira, and I probably had a chance of doing that for a living. But when I reached 16, I knew I couldn’t carry on playing both football and cricket, and I was already in the Shrewsbury squad.
I needed to step back from cricket, international cricket in particular, to get away from the scrutiny and intensity. I love it but it was too much for me.
You might not think that’s cricket, and it’s not, it’s motor racing.
