When New Zealand beat England and left them bottom of world rankings

When England exited their own World Cup before most of the country had even woken up to the fact it was happening, it appeared the team could sink no lower. In Wisden, editor Matthew Engel lamented the failure to seize upon a “make or break opportunity for cricket to re-establish itself in the public’s affection”. That disconnect only grew as the summer continued, as sparse crowds watched a chaotic and demoralised team plunge to the bottom of the Test rankings.

Having fallen at the first hurdle in a dismal World Cup campaign and then disposed of Alec Stewart as captain and David Lloyd as coach, the visit of lowly New Zealand for a four-Test series was supposed to provide a welcome pick-me-up. The Kiwis had been rooted to the bottom of the Test rankings since they were launched in 1996 and had not won a series away from home in seven years. England did not have had a coach in place – instead relying on Graham Gooch to offer some throwdowns and national selector David Graveney to manage the team while the incoming Duncan Fletcher saw out his contract with Glamorgan – but they were considered strong favourites under their new skipper Nasser Hussain.

“There was a feeling that it was ‘only New Zealand’,” recalls Mark Butcher, the England opener who played three matches in the series, including one as stand-in captain. “People have always taken them lightly and there was an arrogance. It led us to be so much less than the sum of our parts.”

Hussain’s first selection meeting as skipper highlighted the size of the task. The panel of David Graveney, Mike Gatting and Graham Gooch were joined by Ian Botham and Jack Birkenshaw as “official observers”, and the new skipper was “totally incredulous” as senior players he had identified