I want to compete in the next Olympics. If I go to Rio, it will be my third time, which is a rare feat for an Indian athlete. For me, Olympics is important because it's the biggest event on earth for a sports person. I hope this time around I come back with a medal.
Qualifying for the Olympics is probably harder than winning a medal at the Olympics.
If I could have played in the qualifying rounds for the Beijing Olympics, the result could have changed. India would have booked the Olympics berth.
I am very optimistic, and I wish that God almighty grants me success to get a qualifying time. Only then can I go to the Olympics. If this happens I will be the first Palestinian athlete to gain a qualifying time. This will be a big achievement.
I just missed out on qualifying for the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
I'd say most qualifying sessions in the Chase are about the only times I get nervous, because qualifying is so important. A lot of times, when you're fast in practice, you have to live back up to those expectations in actual qualifying.
No one put pressure on me to go to the Olympics; once I'd got the qualifying mark, I just couldn't say no.
The foreign players have arrived in India to give our contribution in order to improve the Indian League, to make it more smart, more well-known, more open, and also to prove our quality along with Indian players.
Be proud that thou art an Indian, and proudly proclaim, "I am an Indian, every Indian is my brother." Say, "The ignorant Indian, the poor and destitute Indian, the Brahmin Indian, the Pariah Indian, is my brother."
I think it's a great accomplishment. Qualifying for the Olympics once is already hard enough now I'm about to compete in my fourth, especially now that we are in the middle of the pandemic.
Your goal is to win a medal at the Olympics. The players who go into their second Olympics like me, know the agony of missing out on a medal.
Qualifying for a major tournament is something that we need to do. You want your best players around you to be able to do that.
My father-in-law and I always had great interest in Indian sport. At the Athens Olympics, watching the wrestling event, we started discussing the state of Indian sport - inadequate representation, lack of satisfactory results etc. We thought we should do something about it.
I am the Olympic Ambassador. I always promote Olympics. I just want to say, Olympics is Olympics. [You] cannot mix with politics. Olympics for me is love, peace, [being] united.
I want to improve cricket at the district level because lot of hardworking players come from districts. We have produced so many great players, but now we don't have players in the Indian team. My intention is to work hard for the game of cricket.
I think the difference with Japan was that they didn't bring in too many foreign players. In my opinion at the ISL it's not too good to have too many foreigners playing. The minimum of five Indian players is too less in my opinion. Since it's the ISL, we have to encourage more Indian football.