Regular 'Crick Lit' readers will know that we strongly advocate judging books by their covers. Not so much the artwork and colour scheme, you understand, as the detail.

Title, synopsis and concept often provide a welcome warning to passing ships - enter these murky pages at your peril - and we have an archetypal example this week in My Story So Far by Alastair Cook.

Upon being confronted with young Cook's debut contribution to world literature, the sharper among you will be moved to wonder, 'What story?', and your confusion is well-founded.

Even the publisher's own press office can get no more worked up than: "Cook talks eloquently about both his early years as a club cricketer for Essex and then later about breaking into the national side, as well as his battle to establish himself as a successful regular opening batsman."

We can honestly say that this is every bit as exciting as it sounds, though 'Cook talks eloquently' is something of a misnomer. First, the Essex man has of course not lugged a laptop around in his trunk but instead spoken to a journalist - in this case Paul Newman of the Daily Mail.

Secondly, though Newman is perfectly competent he is hardly noted among cricket scribes for stand-out eloquence. This is not necessarily his fault - writing for the middle-market tabloids must be a frightful balancing act, talking to people who are idiots but unaware of the fact - but it does not make for Pulitzer prose.

The essential problem though is something else altogether: a fundamental lack of worthwhile material. Cook has played international cricket for only three years and is hardly the Marmite of the England side. You either feel vaguely positive or positively vague about this talented batsman and demonstrably nice bloke who has scored a lot of runs for one so young though not, perhaps, at the times when his team has really needed them.

Controversy is a rare beast in sport autobiography, particularly so when the subject is mid-career and never more so when he is as challenging and dangerous as Hannah Montana. Judgement on Cook's career - Is the assertive opener all winning sides so badly need? Has he the leadership qualities to match the achievements of Michael Vaughan? - has to wait and so, surely, does any worthwhile book on the subject.

Peter Hayter, another Mail scribe, has ensured a healthy second income through ghosting, and updating every few years, Ian Botham's autobiography, and Newman must be eyeing a stroll in his colleagues footsteps here.

Cook could conceivably become England's highest ever Test run-scorer and in 2020 there should certainly be a good book in him. The batsman even uses his acknowledgements to signal the beginning of a beautiful friendship with Newman, so all parties know which side their bread is buttered.

However, this first instalment is stretched taut over 256 pages and it is worth considering how many chapters these early years will merit when the duo come to write the full story. By then there should be the England captaincy, an Ashes victory or two, and perhaps even a one-day trophy success to recall.

Hopefully it will be worth the wait, but there is nothing to recommend getting a head start here.

* Starting Out: My Story So Far by Alastair Cook is out now from Hodder & Stoughton for £19.99.

Peter May