When you've done as much travelling as I have, it becomes hard work - I probably spend 90 per cent of the year travelling.

At the end of my career I always wanted to look back and know that I had given it my absolute best.

Tiger Woods is someone I'd like to ask questions of. I'm fascinated to know about his life - everything he goes through, is he happy being Tiger Woods?

Whether that was in the Chepauk Stadium in Madras or at the Ilford Cricket School, there was a daily diet of cricket run by my dad. It was a hard school but he knew what he was doing. Everything I achieved was down to my dad.

Sometimes when you're around a side you don't realise how good they are until you go away from home and they are a very fine team.

Many Pakistani fans will say they have followed their team for too long and had their hearts broken many times, but I love them, and I love their cricket.

I think Kohli is magnificent in a run chase, I have to say. He has won so many matches for India.

So for me Tendulkar is the greatest but Kohli is not far behind and could well end up as the greatest.

You have to think about ways of improving the helmet all the time, balancing protection with being able to move and see the ball.

I like back-to-back Tests at the end of a series, without any county game in between. We know county cricket has no bearing on Test cricket.

Patriotism is something I wear in my heart not on my head.

It is crucial to have an injury seen to quickly.

Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting are anything but conventional, and you can't frown on Steve Waugh for playing his slog-sweep because it's so effective.

Everyone should be decisive about what's best for them and stick to it.

Spinners are a funny breed. If they're playing on seaming pitches they moan and if they're about to play on real 'Bunsen burners' they reckon the pressure is on them.

You are only given so much talent and it is up to you what you do with it.

Well, I've always prefered playing spin off the back foot because, to my mind, it takes short leg and silly point out of the equation.

Everywhere in life people are in authority to make decisions and you have to abide by them, whether right or wrong.

People shouldn't underplay what the breaking up of a team does in every department.

In every sport you need a break and England seem to be the only cricket country which doesn't get one.

There is too much cricket being played. You need time away to get your mind in order to reach the optimum level.

Michael Atherton's powers of concentration never cease to amaze me. When you need reminding what Test-match batting is all about, who else would you have at the other end?

Seems to me the rules are loaded against batsmen. If bowlers show dissent after a near miss they never seem to get punished.

I want to captain England in more Tests than anyone else.

It was Test cricket as it should be played, when the irresistible force in Allan Donald met the immovable object in Mike Atherton at Trent Bridge in 1998. And I was happy to watch from the best seat in the house - at the other end.

There is nothing worse after a long car journey than to have to go to meetings.

Edgbaston is a ground where you have to think on your feet because it can vary so much from season to season or session to session.

A captain has to be able to look a player in the eye before he starts his run-up or goes out to bat.

It sounds sycophantic, but I don't think I have met anyone in cricket who gives so much to a team as Marcus Trescothick does to England.

I'm never going to have a Test average of 50 like Tendulkar. All I want to be is the best that I can be.

I'm not naive and realise it doesn't make good commentary or sell newspapers if you only say nice things, and the time does come when you have to say someone isn't good enough and has to go. But commentators like Richie Benaud have shown that criticism can be made in a constructive or humorous way.

When I first came into the England one-day side and joined the selectors, I wanted to move away from picking what some people called the bits-and-pieces to the best batsmen and bowlers.

Test match cricket is about individual brilliance.

Being awarded the OBE was a great honour and something I had not been expecting.

Every player needs to be aware of the levels of fitness needed to play international cricket.

The Australians are a weird bunch - until the cricket starts they're really friendly, saying 'good luck' all the time, but the moment the cricket begins they have a real go at you.

My philosophy is to respect the opposition off the field and play it as tough as possible on it.

I play hard and I play to win, and my team play for me because of the backing I show them.

I believe we should come down very firmly on the guilty without infringing the civil liberties of the innocent, like publishing mobile phone bills.

I always used the media - if people were having a go I could use it as motivation to prove them wrong.

What you don't want from a player is to walk off and say 'that's the way I play.'

Sometimes you don't realise what you've got, because it's right in front of you.

You travel the world and you talk to people about Jos Buttler, and they rave about this lad. I don't like massive comments, but he'd have to be up there with the three or four greatest white-ball players of all time. You're talking Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, MS Dhoni, Viv Richards.

You have to try to move your feet and get to the pitch to hit the spinners away.

If a player sits out a tour, it is not a problem, because it is a chance to look at others.

If you are not 100 per cent, Virender Sehwag or Chris Cairns will destroy you.

If we are going to win games, we need 11 fit players. Sir Alex Ferguson does not pick half-fit players.

I feel, as a captain, that when you face a batsman who plays spin well you feel as if you are a fielder short.

I can't pick up a pair of new gloves like Alec Stewart or Mike Atherton. I have to get them sweaty and loose, and put extra stuff on my gloves to protect the fingers.

Nothing worse than walking out in a Test match and finding your hand slipping on the handle.