My secondary schooling was at Marlborough College, Wiltshire, so I'm fond of that part of the world. It's quintessentially English, with village greens, pubs and cricket pitches, and resonates strongly with me.
I've grown up surrounded by Americans and to a very large extent feel American. It sounds strange because I seem to be so quintessentially English in everyone's mind - and perhaps I am. Perhaps it's quintessentially English to have a fascination with America.
English conditions have changed over the years. Lots of runs are being scored in one-day cricket now in England, pitches are good for batting.
Polo is a quintessentially English sport. It stands for quality and sophistication and is recognised all over the world as such.
I could never muster the courage to speak to girls in my college in Pune. Most of them were Parsis and spoke English. I came from a village and could barely converse in English.
Village cricket spread fast through the land. In those days before it became scientific, cricket was the best game in the world to watch, with its rapid sequence of amusing incidents, each ball a potential crisis!
My schooling was disrupted by the shortage of labor during World War I. It meant foregoing high school. Then, late in 1921, I entered upon a short course in agriculture at South Dakota State College. I managed to enter college in 1924, and I was permitted to complete my college work in three years.
I think college is an absolute. In this world you have to learn how to learn and get in the habit of always wanting to learn. Some kids have that out of high school and may be able to do the college equivalent of home schooling. Most kids can't. So I highly recommend going to college.
You wouldn't see those sorts of decisions given in village cricket, let alone Test cricket. The England players have my sympathy.
When people come to see you, they know what you do. That's what they want. They want it to be quite English; they don't want to watch an English bloke trying to fit in. They want it to be quintessentially English in the way that Ricky Gervais is rude to people at the Golden Globes.
International cricket and Test cricket in particular is hard and you are going to get injuries but, if you've got a strong pool of players to pick from who can all come in and do a job, well that can only be a good thing for English cricket.
In one sense, what happens for me outside of cricket gives me that break - the farming means I have a really different life outside of cricket; it's not just cricket, cricket, cricket for 12 months of the year.
I come from a village, Changa Bangyaal. It is a very beautiful village. I am from a poor family. Right from the beginning, I always had a great deal of love for cricket.
I started - well, in England it works a little bit differently. You have to do Fringe theatre, which is basically free theatre. You do it in pubs and small theaters and village halls across the country, and you work for a theatre company. You're part of a troupe.
I've done all my schooling at Chennai - it's always home for me. All my growing up years have been spent here, and I have really fond memories associated with the city.
So nonetheless given the importance that was placed on sport in Australia, I wanted to be part of that scene, particularly since I had felt very strongly in my early schooling being marginalised even in the Catholic school.
I think a lot of what I've done is about people feeling as if they are part of the world but also not part of it at the same time. I don't know whether that's from being a gay kid, but I definitely think that resonates with me.