It is more a recognition of the realities of bowling priorities in contemporary cricket than any comment on their respective abilities as coaches which has led to the change. Seam and swing bowlers of Cottam's type are likely to outnumber spinners by at least three to one in England's main touring party of 16 or 17.
Cottam, 53, the former Hampshire, Northamptonshire and England bowler and sometime Somerset coach, has been England's bowling coach this season and is renowned as a shrewd technical assessor.
Close observers may have noticed Alec Stewart turning to applaud him in the dressing room when Dominic Cork began bowling in South Africa's second innings at Trent Bridge after a wayward first innings. A minor adjustment of the front foot in the delivery stride, suggested by Cottam in the nets, had suddenly restored Cork's outswinger.
Emburey has been Lloyd's deputy on the last two winter tours, having been approached ahead of the Lancastrian for the main job. He turned it down because he had already accepted the role as chief coach at Northamptonshire and felt he needed more experience.
An off-spinning craftsman without peer in England for at least 10 years in his long career, Emburey will coach the England A side in Zimbabwe and South Africa from mid-January to early March. A mixed programme will include three five-day matches.
Fourth-placed Gloucestershire field an unchanged team for the championship match against Kent at Bristol today, despite an innings defeat by Lancashire last week. They will be looking to reduce a 62-point gap on leaders Surrey, who have played two games more. Their attack will again be led by Courtney Walsh and Mike Smith, who have taken 105 first-class wickets between them this season.
Lancashire go into the Roses match at Headingley with left-arm spinner Gary Keedy challenging for a championship return. Keedy has played only twice this season but is included in a squad of 12 because 19 year-old leg-spinner Chris Schofield is on England Under-19 duty.
Kent are to face official questioning about the Canterbury pitch on which Tuesday's one-day match against the Sri Lankans was abandoned after 3.5 overs because of danger to the batsmen. The game was restarted on another pitch.
Harry Brind, the England and Wales Cricket Board pitch consultant, has inspected the wicket, a re-laid one, which was found to have undulations along its length contributing to its extremely variable bounce.
Brind will be advising Kent how to remedy the problems, and they will be asked to appear before the board's pitches advisory group next month to explain what happened and the remedial work being carried out.
``The PAG will then decide whether any further action should be taken,'' said ECB cricket operations director John Carr. ``We view this matter very seriously.''