The multiple challenges of a Pakistan Test tour, now only days away for the South African men's team, could also prove the proper "bedding down" of Mark Boucher as national head coach.
Another good result – even a share of the spoils in the two-Test series there would be enough to tick that box, you might feasibly argue – will go further to quelling the noise levels from his still-substantial school of detractors.
Boucher does not consciously court popularity: perhaps that is just one reason he is not yet a universal cup of tea among observers and supporters of the Proteas' cause.