I am like the huge percentage of Indians who follow majorly cricket when it comes to sports.
Since childhood, I have been a cricket fanatic.
I've played cricket seriously since I was eight years old, when I first played for the Essex under-11s. I can't just turn it off.
I am fully aware that cricket is like a second religion in Pakistan.
Since my childhood, I saw my elder brothers playing cricket and that is what built my passion around it. I was enrolled in school but all my attention was on cricket.
I think every Indian knows how to play cricket.
Pakistan fans are crazy about cricket.
By the time I was a young man, I lived with two deep struggles: I longed to become a cricketer, and I performed miserably in school. Cricket and tennis were all that I lived for. In India, this was a formula for failure.
I'm a person who sometimes tends to worry too much about cricket. Previously I would think about the game for probably 15 hours, but now with the presence of my wife it has come down to ten hours, and I would like to bring that down to about nine.
Cricket was my reason for living.
I absolutely love my cricket. I would watch it six, seven hours a day when Australia were playing. I grew up in a very spoilt era of Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Ricky Ponting and others.
I just don't know the art of making friends with girls. And that's the reason why I've never had a single girl as a friend. Also, I'm so engrossed in cricket that I've never found an opportunity to interact with girls very closely. In a way, it's better, as my mind doesn't get diverted!
There is an amazing craze for cricket in India.
Every time you're involved in an Ashes series, as soon as it finishes at the back of your mind you start thinking about the next one.
I can't leave cricket. It is my passion.
