“I was given a talent to play cricket. I don’t know why I was given it. But I was. I owe it to all those who wish it had been them to give of my best, every day.”

He is a great leader by example. Someone whom I have always admired for his ability to remain balanced and have the sense of equanimity about his captaincy.

I was telling people if every time I answered a question about Multan I got a rupee, I would be a multimillionaire by now.

If you don’t ask for the best, you don’t get it.

You get an image in the first couple of years of your career, and then whether you like it or not, you are stuck with it for the rest of your life.

Sachin Tendulkar is already a ‘Bharat Ratna’ for Indian people because of his phenomenal success and the manner in which he has served Indian cricket for years.

You don’t play for revenge, you play for respect & pride.

In a cricket career, your life is in some ways controlled for you. You have no control over schedules, you have no control about where you want to play, you don’t have control over that as a cricketer.

There are so many fans and so many people who care deeply about this game, and it is because of these fans that we are who we are as cricketers.

No dream is ever chased alone.

Playing in the same team as Sachin is a huge honour. His balance of mind, shrewd judgment, modesty and, above all, his technical brilliance make him my all-time hero. You can’t get a more complete cricketer than Sachin. He has everything that a cricketer needs to have.

I am what I am. I have not deliberately built an image for myself.

I was like every other boy in India, with a dream of playing for my country. Yet I could never have imagined a journey so long and so fulfilling. No dream is ever chased alone.

Cricket is just something that I am good at, just like various people are good at various things. What’s lucky is that cricket gets enormous publicity.

I am not the only intense or intellectual cricketer. I played with other cricketers who could be pretty intense and intellectual.

There is an element of mystique to radio, and I often listen to cricket commentary on radio, especially when one is stuck in a traffic jam.

Sometimes fitness is a good thing to have, but you have to recognise that fitness takes you only so far, and skills are the most important thing. Fitness just helps you execute those cricketing skills for longer and more consistently, maybe.

Experience is the best teacher. I’ve been through a lot – going to the Olympics, going to the Finals, having a lot of good games and having a lot of bad games. It’s a rollercoaster ride and I’m just happy I’m a part of it. If it was easy, then everybody could do it.

The best player I ever played with was Dennis Johnson.

Like all the best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters and of family disagreements.

I’ve got a long way to go to being the ultimate best, but I think my time is now. And I’m starting to enter my prime.

All right, every day ain’t going to be the best day of your life, don’t worry about that. If you stick to it you hold the possibility open that you will have better days.

You never know if you have met your best friend in life yet. That still may be to come.

For five years I’ve felt like the best prostitute in a high-class whorehouse. But all the other girls get paid more than I do.

Humanity is best described as inhumanity.