“Opponents will single him out as a target and people will be on his back when things start to go wrong.”Emburey added: “There had been a lot of pressure on Nasser lately. He wanted to lead the side against South Africa but he also wants to carry on as a Test player He has intimated that he wants to complete 100 Tests. If he had continued as captain and England had done badly against South Africa, he might have lost both jobs.”Keith Fletcher, another former England captain and counsel to many others, has known Hussain since he was a 10-year-old. He was “surprised by the timing” of the decision but could understand Hussain’s desire to step down.

“Nasser has been in charge for more than four years, he had come through a difficult winter and maybe he was feeling tired,” he said. “The job can be very draining and the pressure takes its toll.”Fletcher added: “How long you can stay in the job and retain your enthusiasm varies from person to person. For Steve Waugh it must be an absolute doddle but it is not quite the same when you’re in charge of the England team. You might have two or three players you can look towards to get you out of trouble but someone like Steve Waugh has 11.

An England captain really has to work hard to get the best out of his players, and his decisions in the field are critical because he doesn’t have people to bale him out if things go wrong.”Vaughan will find it as difficult as anyone when he comes up against the Australians. In the meantime, the thing he will have to learn quickly is to keep his two jobs – as captain and opening batsman – quite separate. The last thing he needs to do is to go out to bat worrying about whether he is making the right decisions as captain.”Fletcher believes Vaughan’s presence in Hussain’s Test dressing-room will have been a factor in persuading his predecessor to stand down. “Having two captains, for the one-dayers and the Tests, can work.