We're a tight-knit city in Birmingham. We have so much around us that brings the people together, no matter who you are or your background.

And in an Ashes series the best approach as a player is to not get caught up in feeling pressure for your position but to think only about the greater cause. How can I contribute? It could be a single moment, like a blinding catch or a run out. Think only of the team's needs.

Runs are important, don't get me wrong, but it will be wickets that I will be judged on.

The England team is made up of good people, first and foremost, and we are a very multicultural side, too. I believe we represent our country well and our diversity is one of our strengths.

Difference is respected and the environment Eoin Morgan has created is such that we are encouraged to transfer our personalities into our cricket.

When I look back on my career in years to come I will be proud to say I did not just play in a good England team but one with good people, too.

I grew up playing against friends and cousins in the park and it was some of the most competitive cricket I have played.

In 2014, my first year as an England player, I got booed by some India fans at Edgbaston every time the ball went near me.

Cricket can produce some amazing feelings on the field and I have been lucky enough to experience a few along the way.

Obviously as players we want to play every game. But when you do miss out, I strongly believe the job is to not sulk and make things uncomfortable for those picked or the captain.

Coming on to bowl in the opening powerplay might look stressful for a spinner but I actually quite like it.

You have family and kids, you get home and they want to play with you but you just end up on your phone. I caught myself doing that when my little one wanted a kickaround and I decided I'd had enough.

It's always nice to get a call-up when in decent nick as you can have that confidence coming into the game. It's what county cricket should do.

With young kids watching and hearing the news, we have to be on our best behaviour. I think it's really important that we inspire the younger generation to take up the game. It could turn them away. That's not what we want.

Through county cricket all the way up to international cricket, the individual needs to be responsible for his behaviour.

We want cricket to grow for kids, and for families to come and watch.

I talk quite a lot in the changing room, try and joke around, keep the energy going, try to lift guys if they are struggling, even if I am struggling.

I've always said it's just a game of cricket. The only pressure I get is when I feel I've let the team down.

That's the best thing: just being part of the team.

I know people aren't sure about men who look like I do. People don't see the beard as a bit of hair. I've been shouted at, called some horrible names, and when I first came to Worcester I noticed people crossing the road to avoid me.

I wear the beard as a label. I want people to know I am a Muslim and I want people to know I am representing the Muslim faith. I want to show that you can practise your faith and still play cricket to a high level.

We all played in my family and cricket has always been in the blood.

I think my dad always believed I would play for England, probably more than I believed it, but it never crossed our minds that we weren't going to make it.

I am a Muslim, yes, but I am also very English. People don't realise how proud I am to be representing my country or being from Birmingham.

Being English, being born in England, this is our home and we should be supporting our home country.

If you have nothing to hide, there is no reason not to be transparent.

Young Egyptians, gazing through the windows of the Internet, have gained a keener sense than many of their elders of the freedoms and opportunities they lack. They have found in social media a way to interact and share ideas, bypassing, in virtual space, the restrictions placed on physical freedom of assembly.

Israel claims it needs nuclear weapons as a deterrent against any threat to its existence. The Arab world in return feels that this is an imbalanced system; there is a sense of humiliation and impotence.

The globalization that has swept away the barriers to the movement of goods, ideas and people has also swept with it barriers that confined and localized security threats.

My sister-in-law works for a group that supports orphanages in Cairo. She and her colleagues take care of children left behind by circumstances beyond their control. They feed these children, clothe them, and teach them to read.

Discipline is part of my professional training as a lawyer.

Democracy is not an instant coffee.

Sanctions are a bad idea.

It would be, in fact, very ominous if Iraq were to be able to get weapon-usable material, hydro-plutonium or highly enriched uranium from abroad.

Challenging the integrity of the non-proliferation regime is a matter which can affect international peace and security.

The Nobel Peace Prize is a powerful message. A durable peace is not a single achievement, but an environment, a process and a commitment.

The gap between rich and poor is widening dramatically. There's a hangar at the Cairo airport for private jets, billionaires are on the Forbes list, and Egypt's annual per-capita income is two thousand dollars. How can you sustain that?

Only if you empower the liberals, if you empower the moderate socialists, if you empower all factions of society, only then will extremists be marginalised.

People talk about smart sanctions and crippling sanctions. I've never seen smart sanctions, and crippling sanctions cripple everyone, including innocent civilians, and make the government more popular.

I guess law was always interesting to me because you deal with constants. I like to deal with constants, abstracts, constants and reason and ration, rational approaches to things. I don't know, I never really thought why I wanted to study law. But if you ask me whether I would do it again, absolutely.

Unilateral preemption should not in any way be the model for how we conduct international relations.

Psychology is as important as substance. If you treat people with respect, they will go out of their way to accommodate you. If you treat them in a patronizing way, they will go out of their way to make your life difficult.

You don't get the fox to be in charge of the chicken coop. You don't give the outgoing regime - which has been practicing dictatorship, is an authoritarian system, it's a bunch of military people - the task of changing Egypt into a second republic, a new Egypt with democracy, freedom, rights, etc.

The U.S. engages with North Korea, so I don't see why they can't engage with Iran.

If Egypt were going to change, it is going to change through the young people.

So, we need to delegitimize the nuclear weapon, and by de-legitimizing... meaning trying to develop a different system of security that does not depend on nuclear deterrence.

You need to form a grand coalition, and you need to put your ideological differences aside and work together to focus on people's basic needs. You can't eat sharia.

I think one country with nuclear weapons is one country too many.

America is always a good target for a populist. In many countries, particularly authoritarian systems, if you want to get an extra bonus, you bash the Americans.

There is no religion that was founded on intolerance - and no religion that does not value the sanctity of human life.