| Famous cricket quotes |
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A cricketer's life is a life of splendid freedom, healthy effort, endless variety, and delightful good fellowship. It always surprises me that some people think a world cricketer should give 100 per cent of his effort and concentration every minute he is playing cricket, and then not relax and enjoy himself after. They seem to have strange ideas about how curfews and conferences and controls should fill his time between play. But if a cricketer does not learn early in his life which things do him good and which are bad for his cricket, and for him, then he does not belong in a world-class team. It does not always follow that a player's behaviour on the field is a true index of his character off it. It is not altogether an advantage when a side becomes heavily dependent on one man, however gifted. If he succeeds, heinspires his fellows beyond their normal abilities; but if he fails, he is apt to depress them far below what they can really do. During my 21 years of play cricket, I have never been approached by anyone or being offered a bribe. Cricket is a pressure game, and when it comes to India-Pakistan match the pressure is doubled. I bowl my best when I am fittest and the best way to get fit is to bowl. That's how you get your rhythm. You cannot really find a rhythm by bowling in the nets. Soccer and cricket were my main sports growing up. I have trials as soccer player ... but it was cricket which became my choosen profession. Cricket was my reason for living. Reading poetry and watching cricket were the sum of my world, and the two are not so far apart as many aesthetes might believe. Sachin Tendular is the hardest batsman I've ever had to bowl to because he judges the lenght a lot quicker than anyone else. A chance, as a coach, to take a team to the World Cup finals is probably as high up the tree as it gets, certainly with one-day cricket. A cricket ground is a flat piece of earth with some buildings around it. Baseball has the great advantage over cricket of being sooner ended. Both sides have been playing tremendous cricket over a couple of years and they're both very good units. But eventually it is a game of cricket. Cricket is a pressure game, and when it comes to an India-Pakistan match the pressure is doubled. Cricket is basically baseball on valium. Cricket makes no sense to me. I find it beautiful to watch and I like that they break for tea. That is very cool, but I don't understand. My friends from The Clash tried to explain it years and years ago, but I didn't understand what they were talking about. Cricket needs brightening up a bit. My solution is to let the players drink at the beginning of the game, not after. It always works in our picnic matches. Cricket the world over, I don't think, will ever know how different things would be without Kerry Packer. Cricket to us was more than play, it was a worship in the summer sun. Cricket was my reason for living. Down the mine I dreamed of cricket; I bowled imaginery balls in the dark; I sent the stumps spinning and heard them rattling in the tunnels. No mishap was going to stop me from bowling in the real game, especially this one. During my 21 years of playing cricket, I have never been approached by anyone or offered a bribe. Endless cricket, like endless anything else, simply grinds you down. Geez, I just played cricket because I loved the game. I never thought about it much, never really had any formal coaching. Hitting a baseball well, as in cricket, is a very rare skill. One of most difficult things to do in the world to do, hitting a ball coming at you at ninety miles an hour with a round bat. Wonderful to watch. I can remember running around at the age of 3, wanting to play golf, cricket and football. I was always active, one way or another, driving my parents mad. I cannot let this opportunity pass without placing on record how much I have enjoyed my cricket with Kent. I do love cricket - it's so very English. I feel I have had a very interesting life, but I am rather hoping there is still more to come. I still haven't captained the England cricket team, or sung at Carnegie Hall! I feel when somebody has been playing cricket for a long time, he creates a separate identity for himself. |