The important thing is to allow the new captain the space to do his own thing. He must be allowed to make his own decisions and if he wants help he’ll ask for it, but I’m sure that will happen anyway.”How Michael handles the job is very much up to him. We can give him guidance and practical help, and try to ease the burden, but he has already shown he is capable by the impressive way he has taken to the one-day job.”Graveney revealed that when Hussain informed him of his decision, there was no attempt by the selectors to change his mind. “Nasser’s decision was a bit of a surprise, but I could understand his reasons,” he said. “He first told me in the morning and I had a number of chats with him during the day about it, but it was clear he had good reasons for doing it.”Hussain did not give Duncan Fletcher prior notice of his decision, but the England coach was full of praise for his performance as captain “Nasser has been very passionate about captaining England I don’t think people appreciate how passionate he is. That is the one disappointment for me ­ that people are prepared to criticise and not realise he just wants England to do well and will do anything for the England team.”. After his seven-week trial in charge of the England one-day side, Michael Vaughan will find out what it is really like to captain his country when he leads his dumbfounded team out at Lord’s in tomorrow’s second Test against South Africa.

Nobody doubted his talent and temperament but he was underachieving and his Test career was beginning to draw comparisons with those of Mark Ramprakash and Graeme Hick, two high-quality batsmen whose performances for England had failed to live up to expectations.Today Vaughan returns to Lord’s as English cricket’s most influential and important figure. England captains may no longer sit on the selection committee, but the image and direction of the game in this country will be in the 28-year-old’s relatively inexperienced hands.For Vaughan, the timing of Nasser Hussain’s resignation is dreadful. After his successful start as leader during the recent one-day series, he was always going to be the man to take over from Hussain. That seven-week trial would have allowed Vaughan to look at the five Tests against South Africa as an opportunity to ease himself gently into Hussain’s shoes.However, Hussain’s shock decision on Monday evening gave Vaughan only 48 hours to collect his thoughts and decide how he can lift England out of the rut they find themselves in after their disappointing performance in the first Test at Edgbaston.

They say that a week is a long time in politics but seldom can the momentum of a Test series have swung so violently in a seven-day period.In the lead-up to the first Test, everything was going England’s way. Most of the players were in top form and their opponents were struggling. Indifferent performances, talk of unrest in the South African team and the loss of their leading player, Jacques Kallis, due to a family bereavement, had even given Hussain the feeling that the tourists were “there for the taking”.But for Hussain’s decision, England would have arrived in London the happier of the two teams after getting away with a lucky draw. South Africa, tired from their exertions, would have been ruing their luck. Mentally the position of the sides would have been similar to the aftermath of the third Test at Old Trafford in 1998. England were 1-0 down in the series but scraped a draw after being outplayed for five days.