Vaughan, captain at the age of 24, has been handed a chance to sharpen his diplomacy skills and, more importantly, to advance his status as an established opening batsman for Yorkshire in the knowledge that England will be assessing candidates next summer for the Test side.
The air in Harare is thin at 4,000ft above sea level and the African sun is draining. Nevertheless, England's ill-fated senior tour of Zimbabwe two years ago should have been successful on sound, slow pitches, but ``murder 'em'' they did not.
David Lloyd, as England's coach, found the drawn Test series frustrating and the 3-0 one-day defeat embarrassing. England A, with John Emburey as coach, will have to avoid at all costs the tetchiness that left a trail of hurt feelings during the senior visit.
Vaughan, on his third England A tour, seems well equipped to deal with bridge-building during the six weeks in Zimbabwe, and he is well aware that England's selectors need to establish batting alternatives for Mark Butcher, Steve James and Nick Knight, who have failed to make unanswerable cases to open. And Michael Atherton's career cannot have very long to run.
The dearth of class players of Vaughan's age - there was nobody aged 21-26 when the Ashes party was announced last September illustrates a problem identified by the England and Wales Cricket Board. The 'closed' nature of the county circuit focuses development effort on too many fully professional players at too young an age.
All too often international under-19 players fail to advance to the Test fringes. Vaughan must prove he is one of the exceptions of his era. He captained England Under-19s on tour in Sri Lanka five years ago and led them during the summer series against India in 1994.
Since then only two of his team-mates have scented a chance of Test cricket - Chris Silverwood, with one cap, and Richard Johnson, the Middlesex seamer who was chosen for England's 1995-96 tour of South Africa before withdrawing injured.
Two of Vaughan's former under-19 colleagues, Melvyn Betts and Darren Thomas, appear on this A tour. Robert Key and Graeme Swann are the only players from last year's strong under-19 World Cup-winning team in South Africa.
The Harare-bound party gathering at Gatwick for the 10th England A tour are the weakest yet in terms of international experience. Andrew Flintoff, with two caps, is the only Test player, and Darren Maddy made his England one-day debut last summer. They are the only names in the World Cup possibles list of 37 announced last August.
England A face three five-day matches, but the opposition is unlikely to be strong. So style and tempo, as much as weight of runs, should be the judge of the stronger batsmen.
Wickets, and not simply containment, will be expected from the bowlers, most notably Paul Hutchison, Yorkshire's left-arm seamer, who swept all before him on England Under-19s' tour of Zimbabwe three years ago. He is the most intriguing swing bowler to emerge for years.
With Emburey as coach and Phil Neale as manager, all the players should extend their learning curve in alien conditions but, as with all England A tours, the exercise might prove to be more to do with weeding out the flawed players than advancing careers.
England A tour of ZimbabweSquad
*M P Vaughan (Yorkshire) D L Maddy (Leics) R W T Key (Kent) M B Loye (Northants) A Flintoff (Lancs) M G N Windows (Gloucs) V S Solanki (Worcs) ˆC W Read (Notts) G P Swann (Northants) S D Thomas (Glamorgan) P M Hutchison (Yorkshire) M M Betts (Durham) J D Lewry (Sussex) S J Harmison (Durham) D A Cosker (Glamorgan) Coach J E Emburey Manager P A Neale Physiotherapist A Brentnall
Itinerary
Jan 16 Country Districts (Harare)
18 Select XI (Harare)
20-23 Mashonoland (Harare)
26-29 President's XI (Kwekwe)
Feb 2-6 First 'Test' (Harare)
9-13 Second 'Test' (Bulawayo)
16 First one-day international (Bulawayo)
18 Second one-day international (Harare)
20 Third one-day international (Harare)
Feb 22 Arrive Johannesburg
25-28 Gauteng (Wanderers)
March 4-8 President's XI (venue to be decided)
10 arrive London