In India, people are really glued to the Premier League and La Liga.

Basketball is booming, and it’s not just an Under Armour standpoint: it’s about the game itself. Kids going out and playing and being inspired by what we do on the court.

Like a baseball game, wars are not over till they are over. Wars don’t run on a clock like football. No previous generation was so hopelessly unrealistic that this had to be explained to them.

When I’m out on the football field, I have so much confidence in what I’m doing.

There’s many ups and downs in the fight game.

I had been playing for a while, and I asked Louisville Slugger to send me a dozen flame treated bats. But when I got it, I realized they had sent me a box of ashes.

Joe Frazier got hit more than me – and he doesn’t have Parkinson’s.

When the NBA adopted their uniform that they had to wear, I thought that was very interesting. And you see the way NBA players dress: It’s very cool.

My priority is cricket. Everything that I get apart from it is a result of the effort on the field. Everything else follows. I am pretty aware of my priorities, and I don’t really focus on things that are not as important to me as cricket.

To share the dressing room of club and country with Bhai was an amazing experience. I learnt a lot from him and other senior players like Renedy Singh.

Football coaches don’t have real problems.

The English game is not faster than the German game. Perhaps there are a few more sprints. But there is a different style of football here, partially due to the weather.

I’m proud to be an actor. See, as an actor, you live longer. Football players, the brain and all that stuff, ooh-eee, that’s not good.

I love soccer, love tennis… Roger Federer has been a favourite for a long, long time. The kind of consistency he has shown, 16 Grand Slam titles… The way he handles himself in pressure situations is admirable… He is so calm… In soccer, I’m a huge fan of Barcelona… I like watching Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and David Villa.

Over the years, all my coaches and my teammates have contributed a lot to shape my career. I can never forget their contribution and help.

I rate Fabien Barthez and played with two great keepers in Alex Stepney and Harry Gregg.

I am not a dreamer. I am a football romantic.

What is Champions League level? I saw a lot of rubbish games at Champions League level.

Baseball has the great advantage over cricket of being sooner ended.

WIth football you can have up to 28 guys you consider starters, and if they can pick up the slack when some aren’t playing so well, you don’t have to turn those two game losing streaks into six-game losing streaks.

I try to encourage all my teammates, and I sure hope that some day all athletes – my kids, high school kids – get the same level of care I get. Because you can play for a long period of time without having knee replacements, without having all the major head trauma that people are dealing with.

All ballplayers should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill.

I don’t think there’s been anything in the game of football in my lifetime that has changed college football more than redshirting.

You’re not going to see my sense of humor on the football field. That’s not a place for me to joke around.

A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are.

Volleyball, I could be pretty good. After a few practices I could be that striker, or whatever they call it.

I swim like a fish and I have an amazing kick.

I know my serve stinks, but I was a pretty good tennis player.

I noticed that when I touched the ball on the field, you could hear this shrill noise in the crowd with all the birds screaming like at a Beatles concert.

If Tiger Woods had played football, he would have been a quarterback.

The joy and love that I get from playing football are unbelievable. It is such a feeling that I want to give everything that I have got. I just enjoy it, I am living a life that I never even dreamt of.

In all my years of baseball, I have always expected to be traded. I never liked the idea.

For 2,500 years, India has never invaded anybody.

Until 1914 I loved to travel; I often went to Italy and once spent a few months in India. Since then I have almost entirely abandoned travelling, and I have not been outside of Switzerland for over ten years.

I’ve thought sometimes about what I like about football, and it’s playing together.

Lot of players lose hope because of lack of motivation.

When did I know I had talent? I think it started when I first started playing sports, organized sports.

Baseball changes through the years. It gets milder.

Reading isn’t good for a ballplayer. Not good for his eyes. If my eyes went bad even a little bit I couldn’t hit home runs. So I gave up reading.

I have never cared especially for outdoor sports and have no desire to excel at tennis, swimming, or golf. I’ll leave those things to the men.

India has to be transformed into a developed nation, a prosperous nation and a healthy nation, with a value system.

My superhero has always been Tendulkar, and it will be Tendulkar for life. He is someone who has inspired me immensely. Just watching him play for India, I used to dream of winning games for India, because he used to do it single handedly.

My uncle played rugby, and my dad played football, and they used to argue which game was the roughest – and everybody agreed rugby was. It’s a great team sport, and to be successful, every person has to play in the same level.

Sometimes in the past when I played something might make me lose focus, or I would go home after a game where I thought I could have played better and I would let it hang over my head for a long time when it shouldn’t.

Pakistan will never be able to match the Indian militarily, and the effort to do so is taking an immense toll on the society.

To be honest, there are no problems between me and Messi. People have their own opinions about who they think is the better player. It is what it is, but there is no rivalry beyond games and what happens on the pitch.

If you look at the history of Notre Dame, if you hire a coach who’s been successful at another college program, they’re going to be ultra successful at Notre Dame because the talent will always be there.

I really want a movie made on Sachin Tendulkar’s life. That is something I’m looking forward to. There will be so much emotion to that movie.

You know, I’m just 6’9 and 260. And just so happen to be very good at playing the game of basketball.“

Even if soccer is not number one in the United States, they do things very well here. There’s much our country can learn from the U.S.A., because we all know that soccer is not the main game in India. We can still do more things, like provide better facilities for the players so they can perform well.

Winning the title in England is the biggest challenge of them all.

I was 19 or 20 when The Beatles were at their peak, and I was coming up to the peak of my career, too. I was also the first footballer to have long hair, and that’s how I got my nickname ‚the Fifth Beatle.‘

Baseball is a universe as large as life itself, and therefore all things in life, whether good or bad, whether tragic or comic, fall within its domain.

What the ISL has done is create the hype and buzz around football that it very badly needs.

Where would I be without baseball? Who am I without baseball?

The diversity of India, of our civilization, is actually a thing of beauty, which is something we are extremely proud of.

The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game.

The nice thing is that when people come up to me, it’s the football they remember, not all the other rubbish.

I think the positive competition between states in India is one of the most positive dynamics that the country has.

Even after Independence, we have had to face the poison of casteism and communalism. How long these evils will continue? Whom does it benefit?

I can’t say this enough – the food that you put into your bodies can actually help you get better grades. And it can also affect your performance in sports and other activities too. You see, when you give your body the best possible fuel, you have more energy, you’re stronger, you think more quickly.