The policy of dividing the captaincy is right, particularly so given Alec Stewart's other responsibilities. Nick Knight is an alternative leader but Adam Hollioake will no doubt be retained as captain for the one-day triangular series in August when the selectors discuss the matter later in the week.
That will end the unhelpful speculation and enable David Graveney, Graham Gooch, Mike Gatting and the versatile Stewart himself to tackle with uncluttered minds the more important business now at hand: the first Cornhill Insurance Test, starting at Edgbaston on Thursday week.
Darren Gough's return makes optimism reasonable and the decision to return to Stewart as wicketkeeper opens the way for Graveney and company to unveil their hidden card: a resuscitated Ian Salisbury as the fifth bowler who will surely be required if South Africa's long batting order is to be defeated twice in a game.
Edgbaston may or may not be the place to let him show the fruits of a winter in Australia and shrewd tutelage from Terry Jenner, but Salisbury's form for Surrey this season, including analyses of four for seven against Warwickshire and five for 98 from 47 overs against Somerset suggest that he has come nearer to the goal chased by every wrist spinner: venemous spin (he always had that) and accuracy.
In successive series against South Africa last winter, Mushtaq Ahmed took 14 wickets at 27 and Shane Warne 20 at 20.85. Stuart MacGill, another wrist spinner, took five wickets at 26 in his only match. If England and South Africa have one thing in common, it is that they both play wrist spin with great difficulty and if Salisbury is no Warne or Mushtaq, it would be very surprising if, given the chance, he were not to outbowl Paul Adams.
The selectors have two other difficult areas to consider: the support fast bowling and the opening batsmen. In some ways, Mike Atherton will be fortunate if and when he gets the reassuring telephone call from Graveney on Saturday night. A solitary big score - 152 on a flat pitch but against a decent Kent attack - would not in normal circumstances be sufficient to wipe out two poor Test series in a row, and Lancashire have no championship match later this week to enable him to press his case. But Atherton wants to carry on playing for England and since the other opener will be unestablished, whoever he is, the inherent class of FEC should be backed.
Sadly for Knight, talented left-handed batsman, brilliant fielder and potential leader, Warwickshire also have no first-class cricket before the selectors must decide. Mark Butcher's hundred for Surrey keeps him in the running after his mercurial tour of the West Indies, where one brilliant catch to dismiss Carl Hooper but too many dropped ones later added to a confusing picture. He would probably have to make another hundred against Kent later in the week, and Darren Maddy would have to fail against Derbyshire, for the selectors to be deflected from their intention of giving Maddy his first cap as Atherton's partner.
Salisbury's rival as support for Robert Croft's off-spin is no longer Phil Tufnell but Ashley Giles. The outstanding bowler on the A tour of Kenya and Sri Lanka, Giles certainly deserves to be the next left-arm slow bowler tried, but it is a long time since finger spinners were more effective on covered English pitches than the leg-break and googly men.
Angus Fraser and Gough are certainties, but the third and possibly fourth fast bowlers less so. Dean Headley was nothing if not inconsistent in the West Indies but so was Andy Caddick and Headley took six more wickets. Croft's batting form has been good enough, both in the Caribbean and for Glamorgan this season, to suggest that No 7 is not too high for him, but the selectors, with an anxious eye on Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock, will be looking to shore up their batting further, which would mean an all-rounder at seven and a choice on the morning of the match between Headley and Salisbury.
Craig White is bound to be considered again as the all-rounder but, like Chris Lewis, the evidence is that he is not quite good enough at the highest level, so the choice should be between a man who has already won games for England, Dominic Cork, and another who soon may, Ben Hollioake. Cork looks to me to have come through the slough of despond, so he would be back in my team. Here, humbly offered to the four wise men, it is: Atherton, Maddy, Hussain, Thorpe, Ramprakash, Stewart, Cork, Croft, Gough, Fraser, Salisbury or Headley.