The message to Nasser Hussain from WCM readers is unequivocal: "We know you've said you will probably go at the end of next summer but say it ain't so. Please don't go." No less than 79% said Hussain should stay on beyond next year, leaving only a small minority of 20% who think that enough will have been enough by next September. And what if he does go? Readers have reached a split decision. A comfortable majority think that Marcus Trescothick will be the next England captain. However, a small majority state that the successor ought to be Michael Vaughan. Mark Butcher comes a distant third in both these polls.

A substantial 63.7% of the readers' sample think Trescothick is uppermost in the minds of the selectors but the percentage falls to 38.8% when the question is subtly changed to ask who ought to be the next captain. Vaughan, who polled only 24.0% when the question was who would succeed, attracted 39.4% when the question was changed to "should". The voting was desperately close, with Vaughan attracting only four more votes than Trescothick. The result might have been influenced by Vaughan's golden summer and Trescothick's quiet season, which was interrupted by injury. One in 10 think Butcher will captain England; one in eight think he ought to.

Vaughan says he has not given a thought to the captaincy. At the end of the summer he had played only 12 Tests on the trot. That would not have ruled him out in the past, when the captaincy changed hands more regularly than in the Atherton-Hussain era, but his priority this last summer, believe it or not, was simply to become an established England player.

Readers clearly assume that Trescothick is the natural candidate. He has been Hussain's vice-captain since 2001 and actually captained England, in Hussain's absence, in the fourth one-day international against Zimbabwe last year at Bulawayo. He also took over this summer when Hussain had to leave the field during the first NatWest Series match against India at Lord's. Somerset have made him captain, though he had precious little opportunity to practise with the county side in 2002.

"Written me off already?" was Hussain's response when he was asked about the succession the day before he left for Australia. But he is making the running himself. His gut feeling is that he will retire after leading England next summer against South Africa before making way for a new captain to lead the team to the West Indies in the winter of 2003-04. But, if he does go, then Trescothick (now aged 26), and Vaughan (28) might be in danger of getting the job too young.

"I was 29 and I'd been through the ups and downs of international cricket and I was fairly philosophical about it all," said Hussain. "I'd served as vice-captain to Alec Stewart and Mike Atherton, seen what they went through, seen how harsh the press can be at times, seen how complimentary they can be too, to make sure you don't get too high or low. So it came for me at the right time.

"But the major issue is combining captaincy with your own personal game. I don't think any of those lads realise what you go through as a batter and as a captain. About how you juggle your own game with captaining the side. I hope all three of them realise that and I hope the selectors pick the one who will be best able to handle that. It's a bit of a lottery because you don't know how they're going to react but the three of them are getting consistent runs and the best one will be able to handle the captaincy so their form doesn't suffer."

And who might that be? If Hussain knows, he ain't saying.

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