Most cricketers who played in the pre and post 1970s, 1980s, and well into the 1990s were brought up to respect their elders. Even when we disagreed with them, we never forgot what they had done for the game. They kept cricket alive in the most difficult of times when there was hardly any money in the game and Test players were paid match fees from gate collections.

I remember a cricketer of the 1950s revealing how a BCCI Secretary came to the station to hand over the match fees of players in bags of coins before the players boarded the train for the next venue. It was this passion and sacrifice that kept the game alive, and because of that, we got the chance to earn far more than they ever did.