If someone thinks, 'I'll spend the off season working on my fitness and I'll come back a better cricketer,' I don't think that's enough. You need to spend a lot of time working on your skills and honing your skills.

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 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.

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.

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

On the onside, first there is God, then Sourav Ganguly.

I have the kind of personality that I always look ahead than look at what's happened. It does help a lot, especially when you've done badly or you've failed. It's instinctive of me that I look at what's next, I look ahead a lot, and start preparing for that, in victory and in defeat.