A Quote by Imran Tahir
Playing for South Africa is an absolute honour, and I don't feel like I need to relax. Every game I take more than seriously.
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I always dreamt that, but I never thought I will be here one day playing my 100th game for South Africa. It's an absolute honour and privilege, being given the opportunity by the lovely people from South Africa.
I always say the Premier League is the best in the world, and I still feel it is an honour to be playing here, but I think English football suits my game. Football is more physical here; the ref is not whistling every foul.
The natural thing in Africa is to start playing soccer at 8 or 9. You go outside and you play like kids play basketball here, and you grow a feel for the game. In Africa, the kids start playing basketball at 16 or 17 or 18, and when they get an opportunity to come here, they have been playing for only one or two years.
South Africa is regarded as being an extraordinarily important country - not just for South Africa, but for Southern Africa, for the BRICS, working now in a new way in which power is becoming more shared - thankfully.
When I was in government, the South African economy was growing at 4.5% - 5%. But then came the global financial crisis of 2008/2009, and so the global economy shrunk. That hit South Africa very hard, because then the export markets shrunk, and that includes China, which has become one of the main trade partners with South Africa. Also, the slowdown in the Chinese economy affected South Africa. The result was that during that whole period, South Africa lost something like a million jobs because of external factors.
It's enough to play for South Africa and take wickets for South Africa, and then I managed to get 400. I never thought that that would happen.
I feel no bond with South Africa, which is curious, since South Africa is where I was born.
My advice to people today is as follows: if you take the game of life seriously, if you take your nervous system seriously, if you take your sense organs seriously, if you take the energy process seriously, you must turn on, tune in, and drop out.
I haven't traveled in Africa nearly as much as I'd like to. I've been there a few times, and I'd like to learn more about the various cultures in Africa. But that's the basis point of where all of the music that I love is based upon, from Africa to Cuba to Puerto Rico to South America.
If you're playing someone you care about, it's tough, and I don't want to be in that situation. We are playing big matches for big points and prize money, and I take it very seriously. I relax when I'm outside tennis.
If I had a bad game and we lost I take it very seriously. I feel if I play a good game that other guys will follow and that will help us win more games. And if I don't, I take it upon myself as being my fault.
It's great that I get accused of not being politically correct. People need to take themselves less seriously. This world is so screwed up as it is, we've all got to relax a bit more.
I feel like God gave me the ability to play a game. I try to take it very seriously. I realize it's just a game.
Even in South Africa, the Commonwealth were not doing anything, and their attitude was to tolerate apartheid in South Africa. There was a lot of lip service being paid to the need to stop this practice, but nothing was done.
And now South Africa has finally woken up and it is doing great things. And if South Africa becomes the template to what AIDS is in the sub-Saharan continent, then all the other countries are going to follow suit. And Michel Sidibe, who spoke at the breakfast meeting this morning, was saying that there is so much hope for Africa now that South Africa has got its house in order.
Sport has the power to inspire and unite people. In Africa, soccer enjoys great popularity and has a particular place in the hearts of people. That is why it is so important that the FIFA World Cup will, for the first time ever, be hosted on the African continent in 2010. We feel privileged and humbled that South Africa has been given this singular honour of being the African host country.
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