Brian Lara
What you have to understand is that the first day I picked up a bat I made an impression on my older sister Agnes and my dad. It was about seeing people satisfied by what you're doing. I was creating a fan base.Collection: Dad
Engaging in sports from a young age will ensure physical and mental well-being.Collection: Sports
You don't need a group of superstars, you need a team working together to bring you better results.
Records are made to be broken. It's great when they are broken by attacking players.
I want to be a consistent individual. I want to be someone my team can depend on all the time.
When the others grew tired and went home and there was no one else to play with I used to play my own Test matches on the porch of our house, using a broom handle or a stick as the bat and a marble as the ball. I would arrange the pot plants to represent fielders and try to find the gaps as I played my shots.
I had to work hard... but I knew I had strong support.
This is a moment I will cherish forever... the first man to score 500 runs.
Disability should not be considered a hindrance to achieving one's goals.
When you play a team sport all your life, you need to get out there sometimes and show some individualism in a sport where you play against the nature.
I have been knocked down so many times, as a player and as a person, and I have had the strength, I suppose that has come from my parents, to be able to pick myself each and every single time and go out there in the face of adversity and try my best and perform. I didn't read it up in a book. It's deep down and it's part of my family trait.
We West Indian cricketers are always proud to play for the West Indies and we know we are made up of different islands and different cultures but we have to be able to mesh together, to come together and perform as a team.
Good captains know the strengths and weaknesses of their teams and make decisions accordingly.
I don't think there is any 16-year-old who is going to embark on the sort of career that Sachin Tendulkar has had and walk away from the game at 40 with such great achievements. He's the Muhammad Ali and the Michael Jordan of cricket.
Every time I go out into the middle I say I have to give 100 per cent, and I do.
I think Rohit Sharma is an awesome player in all varieties of the game.
With all franchise cricket going on around in the world, the intensity of the game, sometimes is a burden.
MS Dhoni is an asset in any team he plays for.
First of all my golfing experience spans all corners of the World - Brazil, New Zealand, L.A. And I think the best place is when you play with friends. I particularly enjoy playing golf with my best friend, former Manchester United player Dwight Yorke. It is the best experience when we can get together on a golf course.
I remember the reason why did I start my golf. We had a four day game I was playing for Trinidad against the Leeward Islands. They had in their ranks Winston Benjamin, Curtly Ambrose and Kenneth Benjamin. To add to it, the track was a green top. The four day game lasted two days, so I had two days to play golf.
I try to read spinners and dictate to them, but they know very quickly if you're not reading them or if you're not confident.
I appreciate every batsman in the world for different reasons. If I want someone to tough it out in the middle, I'd pick Steve Waugh. If I want someone who I know is going to have the technique to survive, you want a player like Tendulkar.
After cricket I'd love to build a family, I'd love to get close to someone and have kids, see them evolve into something special.
I just want that someone in their 50s or 60s, when they talk about Brian Lara, they say 'I enjoyed watching that guy playing cricket.'
When I get to a ripe old age then talk of me as a great cricketer.
I had some bad influences in my time and, if my parents weren't there to straighten me out, things might have gone haywire.
After accepting the captaincy at the beginning of the 1998 season, I immediately set high but attainable goals for the West Indies cricket team and myself.
Well, I think that I pretty much grew up grow up wanting to represent the West Indies.
When I wasn't doing well, I was too tough on myself but I truly tried to minimise it. So, I would always appreciate the fact that, things are not going to go well all the time.
When you succeed, you know, you can get swell-headed or you can be failing, and then you are all down in doldrums. So I try, as much as possible, to keep an even keel.
I fell in love with scoring a lot of runs. I never felt 50 or 100 were enough.
I've played with and against great players. I've been with Viv Richards, Richie Richardson and played against Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jaque Kallis and Virat Kohli is up there with the very best.
My brother shaved a cricket bat out of a coconut branch... we played cricket with anything we put our hands on - a hard orange, a lime, a marble - anything we could use in the backyard or the streets.
My dad made sure he gave me everything, he sacrificed what he had to, to make sure I had what I needed to perform at the best level.
I have been captain in the past and I know what it takes to gel a team and get it going.
Every senior player has to play a part and help the skipper by performing their duties on the field and secondly by performing their duties off the field.
I don't see myself as a father figure but as someone who the younger players can come to and talk to about cricket. Not just batting but cricket in general and I am ready to impart with any information or advice I have.
When I was 21, I did not have that much pressure. I was sitting down on the bench... you know... cleaning Sir Vivian Richards's boots or doing something... getting ready to play international cricket.
MS Dhoni would know what's best for him. He has served Indian cricket very well.
When I was a kid, Test was the form of the game everybody wanted to watch.
We had thousands of people outside Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad. We would wait to get inside to watch a Test at six o'clock in the morning.
Teachers across the world are doing all they can to ensure a good education is the top priority for children.
Children need sports, even if they are inclined towards academics.
Sports will equip kids with the necessary tools to face academic challenges, and provide all-round development.
I really enjoyed the period in which I played my cricket. I can look back now and wish I started 10 years later and played in the T20s. But I also wish I was born 10 years earlier so that I could have been part of the all-conquering West Indies team of that time.
I loved every minute of my 17-year career, all the Test matches, the ODIs and the World Cups. The only disappointment, if you ask me, was I never won a World Cup for West Indies.
As a former cricketer you want to give something back.
Test cricket is still important, so are ODIs, but T20 should be there too because of the crowd factor.
It's good to have young players around you.
I want to leave a nice legacy.