People throw stones at you and you convert them into milestones.
Don't stop chasing your dreams, because dreams do come true.
My point of view is that when I am playing cricket I cannot think that this game is less or more important.
As far as the World Cup is concerned, it is a process. We don't want to jump to the 50th floor straight away. We must start on the ground floor.
Before you lay a foundation on the cricket field, there should be a solid foundation in your heart and you start building on that. After that as you start playing more and more matches, you learn how to score runs and how to take wickets.
And that is the reason why this victory is great, because different players have made contributions to the win.
I have never tried to compare myself to anyone else.
There are over 200 million illiterate women in India. This low literacy negatively impacts not just their lives but also their families' and the country's economic development. A girl's lack of education also has a negative impact on the health and well-being of her children.
Every individual has his own style, his own way of presenting himself on and off the field.
I hate losing and cricket being my first love, once I enter the ground it's a different zone altogether and that hunger for winning is always there.
I get 0.5 seconds to react to a ball, sometimes even less than that. I can't be thinking of what XYZ has said about me. I need to surrender myself to my natural instincts. My subconscious mind knows exactly what to do. It is trained to react. At home, my family doesn't discuss media coverage.
Schools across India do not have teachers, libraries, playing grounds and even toilets. I do not want to see empty classrooms, empty libraries. I do not want to see cattle grazing on fields meant to be cricket or football grounds.
If one man is representing India in cricket, then yes, blame that person when things go wrong.
Wasim and Waqar were amazing bowlers. I would put them right up there with the best in the world.
Critics haven't taught me my cricket, and they don't know what my body and mind are up to.
I always had a dream to play for India but I never let it put pressure on me.
I want to give my six hours of serious cricket on the ground and then take whatever the result.
If efforts to do social work are couched in selfish motives, then they will die a premature death. Why would my efforts get politicised? I have values I inherited from my father. He helped many. Anyone, even a postman knocking on our door would get a glass of water and some sweets.
I just want to continue the way I am going.
At the start of my career, when I used to toss and turn at night, I was fighting that feeling and wanting to go to sleep. Now I know that's normal, so I'll just get up and watch TV or something. I know it's just my subconscious mind getting ready for a game.
People throw stones at you and u turned them into milestones
I just keep it simple. Watch the ball and play it on merit.
I have played for 15 years and it has been a dream.
Any active sportsman has to be very focused; you've got to be in the right frame of mind. If your energy is diverted in various directions, you do not achieve the results. I need to know when to switch on and switch off: and the rest of the things happen around that. Cricket is in the foreground, the rest is in the background.
As a kid I loved John McEnroe. They called me Mac because, while everyone else liked Borg, I was crazy about McEnroe. I tried wearing headbands and sweatbands, and whooping at people. It didn't quite work.
At least with me, the match starts much, much earlier than the actual match.
I am a sportsman and not a politician. I am a sportsman and will always remain one. I am not going to enter politics giving up cricket, which is my life. I will continue to play cricket.
But eventually it is a game of cricket.
I am not thinking too far ahead, just want to take it one thing at a time.
If Destiny throws a stone at you, don't let it become a millstone. Make it into a milestone.
