Whether a player has played one match or a hundred, we should give him respect for what he has achieved and leave it at that.
— MS Dhoni
A sporting track doesn't always mean that it will only have grass on it.
Nobody wants to really play bad cricket.
When I'm at home, I love playing action-oriented computer games.
I have more than I will ever need for one life.
Cricket is not everything, not by any means, but it is a large part of who I am.
One thing about our country that is constant is cricket.
For me, fielding and running between the wickets are two things that are very important. For that, you need to motivate the guys about how much of an effect it will have on the game.
I'm a person who lives very in the moment.
I am always the one who is responsible for anything bad that happens in Indian cricket. Everything that happens is because of me.
Finishing is one of the most difficult things to do in cricket. A player can't be a finisher in just 6 months or one year. You have to be used to that responsibility, keeping on doing what is required from you over a period of time.
It's important to learn and not repeat the same mistakes. What's done is done.
I tell my wife she is only the third most important thing after my country and my parents, in that order.
When I was playing for my school, the only thing I wanted to do was get selected for the Under-16 or the Under-19 district teams. When I was selected for the district, I would think about the next level, which was getting selected for the state side.
Self-confidence has always been one of my good qualities. I am always very confident. It is in my nature to be confident, to be aggressive. And it applies in my batting as well as wicketkeeping.
I used to play a lot of tennis-ball cricket.
Gut feeling is all about the experiences that you have had in your life. It is about being in difficult scenarios, knowing what worked, what did not work, and then taking a decision.
I don't think I will ever make my all-time greatest India team. You cannot compare one era with another, as they will be different.
We have to understand that the five-day format has its own uncertainties, unlike ODIs or T20s. In ODIs, you know that you have to field for 50 overs only, while in Test cricket, there may be a situation that a team might bat for one-and-a-half to two days.
Till the 10th standard, I was quite good - I got 66% that year. After my 10th, I got really involved with cricket, so I didn't have any time to study. And my parents didn't push me, either, which was very good for me.
My dad and my brother were more keen on football, but I used to play canvas-ball cricket while at school in Ranchi, and we would have cricket coaching camps in the summer vacations. That's how I started.
I really don't care what people say; I found Srinivasan as someone who was always there to help cricketers.
I love my country. I tell my wife she is only the third most important thing after my country and my parents, in that order.
You need to perform consistently, and if you're raising the standard, you have to stand by it. You have to keep on doing well.
I don't like discussing cricket off the field.
Frankly, I never thought that I would represent my country one day.
Cricket is not everything, not by any means, but it is a large part of who I am. Therefore, I want to play in all formats of the game and to play as much as possible because, before long, it will be over.
A lot of things have changed since I made my debut in 2004. The way cricket is played has changed. The kind of players that are coming in the Indian team are drastically different than what we were used to. My role is quite the same. You only evolve with time, and that's what I am trying to do.
My wife wants me to eat fish; she says it is delicious. But I don't like fish, so that is that.
From when I was a young boy, I read books on weapons and tanks and combat. I was so interested in the army.
I love to be in the moment. I love to analyse things a bit.
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 love being in the present. When I was playing for my school, the only thing I wanted to do was get selected for the under-16 or the under-19 district teams. When I was selected for the district, I would think about the next level, which was getting selected for the state side. I'm a person who lives very in the moment.
I believe in giving more than 100% on the field, and I don't really worry about the result if there's great commitment on the field. That's victory for me.
As a skipper, when you try to manipulate the field, you need to see the strengths of the fast bowlers.
In front of 40,000 people, you don't really want to drop a catch or misfield. It's part and parcel of the game.
The cameras used to pass by me; now they're stopping for me.
Please criticize me, but how can you accuse me of something like fixing a cricket game after all that the game has given me.
Let me tell you, it is an absolute lie that I told a probe panel that Meiyappan was only a cricket enthusiast. All I said is he had nothing to do with the team's on-field cricketing decisions. I can't even pronounce the word 'enthusiast.'
Winning the World Cup was very special because it meant so much to so many.
If you're playing against an aggressive side, you need to play an aggressive game.
I like to stay away from the game when I am not playing it.
After the first ball is bowled, it's only chaos. What you are trying to do is you're trying to manage the chaos. It's not like a script that happens.
Winning the World Cup was very special because it meant so much to so many. One thing about our country that is constant is cricket. The smile it brought to people's faces was the thing I shall always remember. It reminded me, reminded all of us, of our importance to the lives of the Indian people less lucky than we are.
Cricketers have a very short shelf life. On an average, you make money through cricket for five years, but you need to survive for sixty years.
I care most about how people live their lives, what choices they make, and how they get the best from themselves.
Going out for rides with my friends and having lunch or dinner at a roadside hotel - that's my favourite time-pass.
Maybe because I bat aggressively and go for big hits at times, people tend to remember my batting. But I have always done well as a stumper, too.
If you don't really have a dream, you can't really push yourself; you don't really know what the target is.
After one Olympics, if we invest in sports and say we will get a gold medal in the next Olympic, it doesn't work like that in sports. How it works is that you provide the infrastructure, provide education about nutrition and health.
