“Some would argue the opposite: that with better pitches you should be able to express yourself, a bit like Kevin Pietersen does. Looking back, I wish I had been a bit more like that. But I always had a fear of failure, a fear of getting out, so I tried to eliminate risk from my game.”

English cricket commentator and former player

Nasser Hussain is an English cricket commentator and former player, active from 1990 to 2004. Born in 1968, he captained the England cricket team from 1999 to 2003. A right-handed batsman known for his combative style, he made more than 30,000 runs in over 650 first-class and List-A matches, with 62 centuries. In Tests he scored 5,764 runs in 96 matches, and took 67 catches, often fielding at second slip and gully. His highest Test score was 207, made in the first Test of the 1997 Ashes at Edgbaston, and Wisden described it as touched by genius.