Anyone who has been born in Yorkshire is very proud of it. It's something that's embedded in your character.

Jonny Bairstow

Categorized in : Your Character Proud Born

When Dad passed away, grandpa took on that mantle of teaching me how to tackle at football or taking me and mum to cricket.

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But having gone through two bouts of breast cancer and all the operations and treatments it's fair to say mum's a special human being - especially as she had to deal with the tragedy and heartache that went with Dad's death.

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We're a special family and it's just that Dad's life was taken away from us far too early. Everywhere you go around the world he had an effect on people - in the Caribbean, Australia, South Africa or England. I've never heard a bad word said about him.

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Even with Yorkshire I had 19 fifties before I got my first hundred.

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A hundred for England is special and there's a lot of emotion and a lot of hard work involved in getting back on the field. No one sees the hard work and all the time with the ice machines in rehab.

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I don't think there have been many dull celebrations after any of my hundreds for England. It's been an emotional time for me over the last few weeks. Interpret them as you wish.

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I've been involved in a couple of atrocious World Cups.

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Look how successful Eddie Jones was, then all of a sudden a training camp is wrong and it's his fault. The same with Stuart Lancaster.

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If you suddenly go striving for different things from what have stood you in good stead over a period of time then you're searching for something that you are probably not going to find.

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Well, I grew up in a certain way, through the experiences that I had, so I don't know how I would have turned out had things been different.

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All sportsmen have superstitions, or at least they have routines. You look at Rafa Nadal and the way he organises his water bottles. Me, I always put my left pad and left shoe on first.

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I think it's something you learn over a period of time; you learn to be more comfortable within yourself, appreciative of what you've got and what you haven't, you realise the talents you have and what you can do and you take on the chin the things that you have to. It's part and parcel of growing up.

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You only have to see the rate of divorce in cricket. You're away so much and then 18 months later, you're around all the time and not sure what to do with the rest of your life. You go from being at the peak of your powers to being at the bottom of the food chain.

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Who says we can't win the World Cup and the Ashes in the same year? Oh yes we can. It all goes back to my motto in life: Be proud of how far you've come - and have faith in how far you can still go.

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People don't actually see what's gone on behind the scenes - the hard work, when you're doing your rehab, when you're sleeping on an ice machine - and yet they have an opinion on it.

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It's all well and good when it's going good and people have an opinion on how well you're playing, but it's the hidden things they don't see.

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You look at the challenges that have been put in front of me as a cricketer over a period of time. There have been quite a few. I'd like to think I've come through most of them.

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I've not given up my keeping, I want to make that very, very clear. I'm still working hard on my keeping and it's something I still want to do.

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Most people believe their family is special. I know mine is.

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I'm a bit taller too because I've got Mum's legs and Dad was a bit more squat and well-built than me. My brother Andrew is a bit more like Dad.

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