David Graveney called me in May 2003. "Do you want to captain the one-day side?" he asked. A new era of English cricket was about to begin.

When I first walked into the dressing room, it occurred to me that none of the players really knew what their role in the team was. I took Tres aside. "Your job is to walk out and face the first ball," I said. His face lightened. "Now it makes sense," he replied, and he's never looked back.

Telling other people what to do was all very well, but I also realised that I wasn't sure how a captain was meant to behave. "Apart from not scoring any runs, all you need to do is the exact opposite to Nasser," Duncan advised me.

After our stunning triumphs against South Africa, everyone found it hard to readjust to Nasser's style of leadership in the Tests. He was much more passionate on the field but far less astute off it. I'm not saying he was worse than me; just that he was different. Anyway he resigned soon after, and I had control of both teams.

I couldn't stop laughing throughout my first Test in charge, as everything that could go wrong did so. Nasser dropped Smith early in his innings and the South African skipper went on to score another double hundred, but we fought back hard in the remaining Tests to level the series.

Sri Lanka was tough but our victory in the Caribbean was very sweet. I had been trying to get the lads to stay focused and positive and we got our rewards. With Harmy coming of age as a bowler and the rest of the lads beginning to enjoy their cricket a little more, I felt that we had the makings of a world-class team.

We went from strength to strength throughout the summer of 2004, with seven wins on the bounce against New Zealand and the West Indies. For me, though, the highlight was the birth of my daughter, Tallullah Grace. I dashed off from the Headingly Test for the birth. Nichola was finding the labour hard, but I told her to stay focused and be positive, and I was soon back at the cricket.

Graeme Smith said some things that are best left unsaid - such as calling me queer - but we had the last laugh, winning 2-1 in South Africa. This just left the biggest challenge of all: the Aussies.

I've often said that one-day games have no relevance to Tests, but that's because we lost so many. Obviously, once we started winning them, they became a crucial factor in our Ashes success. Throughout the summer we out-thought the Aussies, had better motivational poems, whinged less and played the more positive cricket, and when KP - we call him that because those are his initials, not because he's nuts! - saved the final Test at the Oval, we fully deserved our triumph.

It's been great to see cricket back on the front pages, but we know there's a lot of hard work still to do. It's also been hard to adapt to being a public figure, with everyone wanting a piece of me. Though perhaps not, this book.

The digested read, digested: Always look on the bright side of life