Growing up in Rochdale, I think, all the kids in my street, pretty much every boy was playing cricket. I had four brothers as well, and we played a lot together. When it was just me on my own, I was bowling at a drainpipe.
When I was about 16, I got my ball taken off me by the police for playing in the street - which is pathetic really.
I was playing tackle football in the street at five years old. Always being physical. Always being tough, just like a man's man. It was just always about being tough.
As a kid growing up in the back streets of Dublin I used to pretend I was playing in the World Cup with my mates out on the streets, and now I will be doing it for real.
Then there was a kid in the neighborhood about three blocks away, his name was Bobby Beavis.
We played out on the street every single day as a family, with neighbours, at the community centres, and I developed the desire to win very early. That environment instilled a competitive edge in me, which has paid dividends in my life.
There is a special sensation in getting good wood on the ball and driving a double down the left-field line as the crowd in the ballpark rises to its feet and cheers. But, I also remember how much fun I had as a skinny barefoot kid hitting a tennis ball with a broomstick on a quiet, dusty street in Panama.
As a kid, when the neighbors were out playing street hockey or tackle football, my friends and I were in my basement with the NES/SNES.
Growing up in Harlem, I was always in the parks playing ball.
We hung out on the streets, played stickball, and did all of the things that other kids did.
I grew up on Avenue C, and Tompkins Square Park was my park. That was where I played ball every day. I lived in that park.
As a kid, I played my share of football in the street or in a vacant lot.
I'd call myself a street footballer, that's where I learned my tricks, and through football I looked at the big players, I think it really helped me.
Brooklyn, when I was growing up, was awesome. It was stoopball and stickball - a lot of kids... the baby boom generation were all in the area. It was just a really great place.
I remember I'd be playing in the streets with friends, sometimes barefooted. I'd come home with sore feet, but wanting to do the same the day after. That passion made us keep playing. Playing in the dirt was our daily joy.
I played a lot at the school across the street from my house. That's how I started, really. Playing street basketball and challenging the guys out on the court who were older than me.
In the Seventies, my children played in the street, read politically incorrect stories, ate home-cooked food and occasional junk and, yes, were sometimes smacked.
I loved playing cricket from my childhood. My dad made me play in the streets, and my interest grew. He put me in a club, seeing this. My habit grew from that point.
My neighborhood, Coconut Grove, we always played in the streets. It was corner against corner. We all had football teams. Different neighborhoods.
I grew up in a slum neighborhood - rows of tenements, with stoops, and kids all over the street. It was a real neighborhood - we played kick-the-can and ring-a-levio.
I owe a lot to playing on the street. And what was even better than playing on the street was playing football with my friends in the local graveyard. It was fantastic. We forgot what the time was and didn't even go home for our meals.
It was a very intense and stressful situation. There was playing in the Johnny-pump (an opened fire hydrant) and the ice-cream man coming around and all of these games that we'd play, and suddenly it would turn just violent and there would be shootings at 12 in the afternoon on any given day.
I'd call the play-by-play of the action when me and my friends played street ball.
I began playing football on the streets.
As a kid, I played my share of football in the street or in a vacant lot. When we were playing in the street, it was more touch football, so we didn't hit each other into cars.
