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Matthew Hayden: Aggression and Rahul Dravid

“To me aggression is of two types. There is real aggression and then there is pretence. You have to look into someone’s eyes to see if there is any real aggression. When I look into Rahul Dravid’s eyes I know that though he might not be outwardly aggressive, he is inwardly aggressive: he wants to hit the ball, he wants to seek out opportunities. He has got fire in his belly. A lot of the aggression that you see now, like staring and chatting, is all guff. That is just a waste of time.”

—Matthew Hayden.

Simone Biles: Memories

“If you’re having fun, that’s when the best memories are built.”

—Simone Biles.

Nita Ambani: All cricket invites attention

“Well, all cricket invites attention.”

—Nita Ambani.

Jemele Hill: Two-fold resentment

“When it comes to sports, women are big targets for abuse because the resentment is two-fold. Some resent us for our confidence and beliefs. But there also is an added resentment because we are supposedly infiltrating a space that has been decidedly male.”

—Jemele Hill.

Sanjay Manjrekar: Tipping

“The strong tipping culture in America can be unsettling for outsiders, but you see the sense of it after a while. It really is a ‘performance incentive scheme’ for their staff. Basic salary is average; but if you serve your customers well, make them happy, you take home a good salary.”

—Sanjay Manjrekar.

Ashwini Nachappa: Inherent

​”Love for sport is inherent in a child. All we need to do is to nurture it and give it wings. And, for this we need to understand that the mind is not devoid of the body. They work best with each other.” 

—Ashwini Nachappa. 

Ravi Shastri: Just eat Uthappa

“Youngsters watching the IPL might give up on idle or dosa for breakfast. Just eat Uthappa, and you might smash them a long way.” 

—Ravi Shastri. 

Ashwini Nachappa: Happy by-product

“An Olympic medal is a happy by-product of a purposefully designed programme that begins in school. Starting, therefore, with an objective of winning medals is holding the wrong end of the stick. By thinking about winning medals first, we will never build a system that naturally and continually throws up great athletes.”

—Ashwini Nachappa.

Bipasha Basu: Three tips to a girl making her gym debut this year

1. There is no shortcut to getting healthy and fit. It’s a discipline for life and it takes time.
2. Do it for the right reason. Aim to be fit, not just thin.
3. Don’t give up if there is pain. No pain, no gain. Do it every day till it becomes a habit.

Tim Bresnan: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t

What he said:

“In the past five or six years we’ve just done it like a Chinese parliament.”

Tim Bresnan, former England seamer, reacts to his appointment as vice-captain of Yorkshire’s country cricket side.

Yorkshire have not had a deputy leader  for a few seasons now.

Former captain, Andrew Gale, is the current coach and Gary Ballance the newly appointed skipper.

Bresnan said:

“Gary phoned me and said, ‘I’ve got to ask you something, mate, would you be vice-captain for me?’

And I was like, ‘Yes, I’m over the moon’.

It was a bit of a shock because we haven’t really named one over the past few years; it just came out of the blue.

I never even thought that Gaz would be having one.

It does make sense, though, if he gets called up for internationals.

I’m immensely proud, and it will be great to work with him and Galey. I’ll just do whatever is required of me.

Pretty much everyone in the team is in the senior leadership group as it is.

In the past five or six years, we’ve basically just done it like a Chinese parliament.

We’ve talked through anything that was going wrong and how we were going to improve as a collective, and we’ve done everything as a group really.

There’s never been any sort of group within that which has sat down separately to discuss things.”

What he really meant:

“Yes, we ran the side based on consensual authority with collective responsibility. That’s how Parliament works, doesn’t it? And we had no real opposition, hence, we’re obviously Chinese.”

What he definitely didn’t:

“I guess I’m Mike Pence to Yorkshire’s Ballance. That Trumps it all, doesn’t it?”

Tim Bresnan playing for Yorkshire (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Vice Captain Sports logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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