Nasser Hussain didn't captain the England cricket team for the glory or money, he did it for curry and chocolate and to make his dad happy. His story, from arriving in Britain as an Indian immigrant with a cricket-obsessed father to leading his country in a job he never particularly wanted, is entertaining and insightful.

Far more than being just a captain, Hussain was, along with coach Duncan Fletcher, largely responsible for transforming England into an international force. Hussain admits he was not the most naturally talented batsman of his generation, but he forged an impressive career out of sheer hard work and determination.

It's a shame then, that this ghosted first-person account is, at least in places, so annoyingly written. It spoils an intriguing account of a slightly tortured but fascinating man. The prose - perhaps in an effort to mimic Hussain's no-nonsense abrasive persona - is written in a staccato style. Like this. And that. Annoying. Isn't it?

The book also slides from formal English into modern slang, with liberal use of 'this' and 'like'. 'I was at this one game, thinking 'I'm, like, on my own here'.' The mix just doesn't work.

It's a pity because, style gripes aside, you really begin to warm to Hussain as the book progresses. The image of a rather dour man with a perma-frown on the pitch gives way to someone who comes across as driven, thoughtful and honest.

From the Zimbabwe debacle - in which the England management told Hussain and his men that they could only call the tour off if their safety was in danger, not because of moral considerations - it moves more traditionally to his upbringing and early days as a teenage leg-spin prodigy.

All through his years as captain and a senior England player though, Hussain says he was so passionate about winning he couldn't really enjoy playing. He would get wound up to the point where if the side were doing well, he would feel under more pressure to perform than a backs-to-the-wall situation.

His father features massively throughout the book. His dad pushed and pushed at him to succeed. Hussain says he is now grateful for the coercion, that it enabled him to get where he did, but back in the 1980s he wanted to do well on the pitch only because it meant curry and chocolate from dad.

Suffering from a cricketing form of the yips, the young Hussain lost the ability to bowl - but his father was not going to let this get in the way of having a Test player for a son. Hussain became a batsman.

The book covers all the controversies of the period - match fixing, including the infamous Centurion Park one-innings Test - and the treatment and behaviour of several players.

All in all, Playing With Fire is an honest and straight-talking account from someone who, as Ian Botham said, put fire back in to the English game.