If you are good enough to play international cricket, you can take wickets - but you have to bowl the right length.

A lot of the emphasis on international bowlers is on their pace and Australia coach Darren Lehmann is a big fan of bowlers who can bowl 90mph-plus.

What's the difference between a good player and a great player? A good player plays well in his own conditions - a great player plays well in all conditions.

I was fortunate to go out on my terms while still at the top but a lot of people are not so lucky.

I always wondered if I would know the right time to retire. After that first Ashes Test in Brisbane in 2006 I had no intention of stopping. I was still focused and wanted a thousand international wickets. I was still driven.

Jimmy Anderson deserves everything he gets, and even though he is an Englishman I will be delighted for him when he goes past my record and becomes the most prolific fast bowler in Test history.

You can tell yourself that everything is normal, and try to keep the same routine from every other Test match, but there is always something extra special about an Ashes series.

I'm expecting big things from our bowlers, from Peter Siddle, who plays the enforcer role, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee when he gets fit again. In batting, there's Phil Hughes, whose already done well for Australia and scored hundreds for Middlesex.

By the time I made my international debut Tendulkar was already being counted among the best batsmen in the world. Most bowlers knew that his was the crucial wicket in an Indian batting line-up that boasted of many talented batsmen.

The year 1989 was crucial for me because I had just moved from the country into Sydney to play first-class cricket. That was the time I heard of a teenager called Sachin Tendulkar, who had burst on to the scene and was being annointed as successor to the great Sunil Gavaskar.

Sport is something that crosses all boundaries and can really bring people together.

My strength was probably more the mental side of the game rather than the skill side. I always had that self-belief that I was good enough. You have got to believe you are good enough, otherwise there is no point to it.

I am quite a positive person. I always try to see the good in every situation, the good in everybody.

If you continually watch yourself do something well, it has a positive effect. If you sat down and watched yourself bowling, batting or fielding badly, it will probably have the equal effect.

The night before a game, I'd think about who I was playing, and then how I'd bowled against those guys, if I had got them out previously. While I was playing, I could recall nearly all my wickets and how I got the batsman out.

You can't go on living in past and having regrets. Its better people have a positive influence on other people's lives than worry about themselves.

Australia play best when they've got a bit of mongrel about them, when they play hard out in the middle, when they don't give an inch, when they play an aggressive brand of cricket.

The support for the McGrath Foundation and what it has allowed the Foundation to achieve and grow into has been unbelievable.

My parents split up when I was 16, and, while Mum came to a few Tests, Dad didn't make many. So I was glad he was at Lord's.

To win Test matches consistently you've got to take 20 wickets - yes, you've got to score runs but if you can't bowl a team out it doesn't matter how many runs you score.

I don't want to get married unless they change the marriage laws. You should have to sign a marriage contract for no more than five years, with an option to opt out.

People call me all kinds of things, I guess, because I'm a little different. I'm never what they expect.

Fans love me because I connect with them. No other superstar can do that.

Chauncey Billups is really not a scoring guard.