Customer Reviews
A most worthy piece of work - By: Magic Rat, 08 Jul 2008 
This is perhaps my favourite cricket autobiography. Naser Hussain wrote the memoirs himself, so there is an agreeable lack of platitudes of the "then we beat Sussex before I headed out to Australia" variety. Hussain,in keeping with his allegedly "difficult" & "bristly" character, pulls no punchesin expressing his opinions. His resentment & fall-out with Essex team-mate Ronnie Irani is depicted as a smarting open wound, still to be healed. Hussain makes it quite clear the people he likedin the game & those he did not & those he disagreed with. He always backs his disagreements with solid reasoning though, & he is disarmingly honest about the flawsin his character. For one labelled so many times as "arrogant", Hussain realises his own faults & does not hold back from expressing them.
The book also, surprisingly, has Hussain expressing just how much he actually hated playing top level cricket & how much freer & de-stressed he now feelsin his different role as a commentator. Most of us would have loved to play for England at Lord's against Australia but Nasser, bless him, loathed every minute !
An eye-opening & thoroughly absorbing read from a complex but fascinating character.
Great, true, honest reading - By: Mr. C. H. Gilbert, 18 Oct 2007 To be fair, loved it, Hussain gritty honest view of everyone he has metin the game, much better than most sports autobiographies coz he does'nt cosy around people he actually does'nt like, brutally honest & difficult to put down, a great read whether you are a fan of the man or not!
A great captain produces a great book. - By: J. DRYDEN, 04 Sep 2006 
Nasser Hussain's jouney through English cricket is perhaps more unique than any other. Starting his career at the beginning of Englands demisein 1989, he went on to play through a shambolic erain the mid to late 90's to captaining a side at the turn of the millenium that grew into a world beater, comulatingin England regaining the Ashes last year. Well known for his passion & firein his game, this book portrays everything you would expect from Hussain. His acheivements largley came from utter determination, & his comparrisons with players that (in his words), had more natural ability are intersting. He explains why people like Ramprakash & Hick didn't have the success they should have, & why players such as Stewart, Atherton, & Thorpe sustained a placein a losing England side for so long. His dilema concerning Zimbabwein the 2003 World Cup sums this book up. An honest & frank view of his feeling's of the sheer pressure he rode as he battled with cricket boards & politicians to help make the right choice for his cricket nation. Hussain write's about his astute retirement from the game, & you feel the release of all his pressures as he reflects up on what was a career that's summed upin his choice of title for the book- playing with fire.
Playing with fire, written with passion - By: Greg Farefield-Rose, 28 Jul 2006 I always find it fascinating to read the autobiographies of England cricket captains as they have such huge influence on & off the pitch. It's interesting to hear the thought processes behind their decisions & the usually revealing pen portraits of their fellow cricketers.
Nasser Hussain's autobiography has plenty of these revelations but even more, it provides a huge insight into the roots behind the determined, sometimes hot-headed temperament of England's most successful captain for years. Clearly crucial to Nasser's development was his obsessive but loving father who relentlessly pushed his son as a cricketer. With some of his old man's steely determination rubbing off, Hussain's rise & superb career were as much due to his character as his talent as he was not as phenomenally naturally talented as some of his cricketing peers. What comes throughin his well-titled autobiography is passion & controversy but also a great tactical brain & an acknowledgment of mistakes made.
Playing With Fire also includes evidence of the politics at playin international cricket with Chapter 1 piecing together the shameful way the England team were treated by the various cricket authorities & UK government over the controversial matchesin Zimbabwein the last World Cup. Nasser records his detailed version of events & provides the definitive account of his careerin this brilliant sporting autobiography.
Nasser Hussain's Life - Warts and All - By: letsgetitright, 27 Oct 2005 This book is very easy to read. You don't get bogged down as you can easily find with many other autobiographies. Nasser Hussain's life is presented here, warts & all, for the reader to digest & ultimately you will find yourself passing judgment upon a cricketer who has been hated as much as he has been respected. Personally I found his distaste at the cricketing system refreshingin the pages of this book. He respects those who are up front & honest even if the opinions expressed are against his own, while on the other hand he dislikes intensely those who are two faced & sneaky. Nasser Hussain is a man who obviously put lots of peoples backs up during his career but if he had tried to be Mr Nice Guy it is quite clear he would have failedin his quest to be so successful as a cricketer.
There are certain things I personally found quite disturbing. For example the admission that Nasser Hussain's father had had such a huge impact upon Nasser's life & decision to take cricket seriously. One got the impression that this was an example of a classic pushy parent. Nasser Hussain seems to bein fear of upsetting his father, to the point of getting his brother to phone up his father when he stood down as England captain & then again when his career came to an end. Going back to his childhood if Nasser Hussain played well at cricket then the whole family got "chocolate & curry" & his father was happy, but if Nasser Hussain didn't play well then the whole family suffered as a result. Personally I read this, & as a parent, I thought that this is surely unhealthy.
This book details the many confrontations that took place during Nasser Hussain's career & he has obviously upset a lot of people along the way. This apparently enabled him to play cricket with fire & passion. This book describes Nasser Hussain as being fiercely loyal to those around him, those who he calls "my boys." There are many examples described where Nasser Hussain stands up for his boys sometimes against fierce opposition. His reputation as a bad boy earlierin his career obviously enabled him to understand other bad boys later on & encourage them to give a lot to the England cause. I felt very sorry for Nasser Hussain when he describes how he found himself betrayed by some he had backed strongly.
You get an impression about sportsmen & women by watching their careers as they progress. But this book shows that there is a lot more going on behind the headlines, behind the highs & lows of their career. Nasser Hussain has written a wonderful, frank account of his life - full of exciting highs & depressing lows. Some are disturbing accounts & others describe the wonderful joys of being a sportsman at the top of his profession. If you only ever purchase one autobiography make sure it is this one.
