Cricket is not just a sport, it’s a passion for millions.

Cricket is full of theorists who can ruin your game in no time.

Cricket is a game of margins.

I just love to play cricket.

If you ask anyone around the cricket grounds, they will say I always sign loads of autographs and thank the ladies for lunch and try to behave in the right way.

Cricket is a team game, and every player has a role to play.

If you play good cricket, a lot of bad things get hidden.

The people you choose to have around you make all the difference. My family and close friends keep me grounded. You have to have a mind of your own and a strong head on your shoulders. Cricket is the most important thing to me, so the rest of it pales in comparison.

I don’t like discussing cricket off the field.

You have seen cricketers who are not god-gifted, but even then, they have gone far. That’s because of the passion.

The biggest crime in cricket is to play the game with selfish intentions.

I never played cricket, I lived it.

Cricket has given me so much; it’s important to give back.

Cricket is a team game. It’s not about individual performances but the collective effort.

In spite of recent jazzed-up one-day matches, cricket to be fully appreciated demands leisure, some sunny warm days and an understanding of its finer points.

And I don’t watch cricket. How can you like a game that requires you to take four days off work to follow a Test?

Cricket is a self-sustaining industry; but corporates need to realise that other sports don’t have that luxury. This is the time when they need to invest, and keep the faith. Every sport has the potential to create world champions. Imagine India as a country full of world champions. Why imagine? Let’s just make it happen.

People need to take as much interest in other sports as they take in cricket, and that’s where we come across a vicious cycle of performance, sponsorship, recognition, jobs and TV visibility. It’s a typical chicken-and-egg story; each one is directly related to the other without an answer for what comes first.

To compare Olympic sport with cricket would not be fair. Years back, cricket was a sport only for the classes, and we will also have to make other sports masses from classes like cricket.

Cricket pays well, so a lot of people are naturally drawn towards the game. But to carve a niche in non-cricket sports is not easy. So state governments need to be proactive. Indians need to be made aware of the power of an Olympic medal. It should be treated at par with an Oscars or a Nobel Prize.

You know when you go to Australia you will get sledged. That’s the fun of the game.

When kids are 15 or 16, they should be playing more sports. I played football, basketball, cricket… Name any sport, and I played it.

When I came into Test cricket, I was good but not as good as I am now.

The more cricket you play in your head, the less you perform on the field. So let cricket, the sport, be on the field.

Quite honestly, cricket is same at all levels. It’s a game of bat and ball.

I’ve been consistent in all the three formats, and that’s what I want to do as a cricketer.

I would be proud if I can score as many runs as Rahul Dravid by the time I retire and serve the country as long as he did.

I totally enjoyed playing in Australia. I think they play very tough cricket, and the brand of cricket they play is very strong.

I spent a lot of time with Rahul Dravid, working on my game and chatting about cricket. He helped me a lot in the games I played for India ‘A.’

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.

I have had to work really hard at white-ball cricket. It doesn’t come naturally to me, I was a slow batsman; I worked hard on my game and fitness.

I have always enjoyed keeping wickets, as it is something that comes very naturally to me.

I got some time off from international cricket so I could come back to India and reflect on what was not going right for me.

I enjoy wicket-keeping in the shorter format. I think when we are bowling first, it gives me an idea of how the wicket is behaving.

Growing up, I played on matting wickets. I always enjoyed the pace and bounce and somewhere that has a big role or big effect on your game.

Fortunately, I got to play some India ‘A’ games, and some games where the pressure was a little less, so that I can focus on my skill and my technique.

Batting with Dhoni is always a dream for me.

After junior cricket, if the team wanted me to keep in a one-off/odd match or if anyone got injured, I was up for it. I kept in One-dayers and T20s.

You have to be mentally strong to succeed in cricket, especially at the international level.

Cricket is a sport that teaches you a lot about life, including teamwork, discipline, and perseverance.

I believe in playing aggressive cricket but not at the cost of the team’s interests.

Mistakes are a part of life and cricket. We learn from them and move on.

Cricket is baseball on Valium.

If the French noblesse had been capable of playing cricket with their peasants, their chateaux would never have been burnt.

In those days, before it became scientific, cricket was the best game in the world to watch, with its rapid sequence of amusing incidents, each ball a potential crisis!

Village cricket spread fast through the land.