End of an era as the curtain comes down on England's Ashes attack

They talked for a minute or so on the outfield at the Basin Reserve before Harmison walked off disconsolately.

It might be the last time we see him as an England player.

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England are to be commended for their bold decision to drop not just Harmison but also, to universal surprise, Matthew Hoggard before the start of a match they cannot afford to lose.

And in so doing they officially brought the curtain down on the bowling attack that won the Ashes.

Decisive action was needed after the horror of Hamilton and in ruthlessly ditching the last two members of the 2005 bowling heroes England have shown that no-one is sacred as they attempt to get their show back on the road.

The top six now know they will be next if they do not deliver in Wellington. This really is the end of an era.

Unless Hoggard or, less likely, Harmison can respond to this setback then we will never again see at least four of the five bowlers who made up the most effective bowling unit in England's recent history.

And the fifth member of the famous five, Andrew Flintoff, still has much to do if he is to regain the bowling potency which balanced the attack perfectly.

And then there was none?

"It was a very tough call," said England captain Michael Vaughan ahead of the start of the second Test.

"Our gut feeling was that we had to make a change. The attack was in need of a shake-up and this is a great opportunity for Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson to stamp their authority on Test cricket."

No-one expected Hoggard to be axed just yet but there is no question that he has looked a bowler in decline over the last year.

What he must do now is firstly regain the fitness that saw him go so long without interruption in Test cricket before his body seemed to say 'enough' and also relocate the knack of taking wickets on unresponsive surfaces that turned him from a good swing bowler into a high-class Test performer.

It will be fascinating to see whether the pair have the desire to force their way back now.

Vaughan did not appear too sure when he said that he "hoped" they would.

"It wasn't a nice thing for me to tell two players I've basically played all my Test cricket with that they're not in the team but it's part of my job," he said.

"I really hope that they react in a positive fashion and if they don't play next week in the third Test I hope they'll go back to their counties, start the season well and try to get back in the Test team."

In Harmison's case that must be massively in doubt. What a sad story this is.

At his best this man is without peer in the world as a fast bowler of pace and menace and it seemed at first during Wednesday's net session that he may have been reprieved.

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He bowled in the same net as Ryan Sidebottom and Hoggard while Broad and Anderson, now the first-choice pair, amused themselves in the background.

And again, just as on Tuesday, Harmison bowled in the nets with pace and purpose to rattle Vaughan and again seem like the bowler everyone knows he can be.

Only he does not seem able to replicate that in the middle. To be fair to England and selector James Whitaker, who has been here to make the 'tough' decisions, they were not swayed by Harmison's net heroics.

We have seen that before. He really seemed to have got his menace back in the second Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo before Christmas but it has turned out to be yet another false dawn and this decent man who has never sat comfortably in the spotlight can now go back to being a big fish in his small Ashington pool and enjoy his four children.

He has achieved much in his career but ultimately will be remembered as a fast bowler of extreme natural talent who could not quite make the most of what he was given.

And so come on down Broad and Anderson. Broad deserves this chance and needs to play as often as possible now ahead of the Ashes next year because he is made of the right stuff and just needs experience to become a genuine Test performer.

Anderson is more complicated. When he became England's man of the series against India last summer, taking five wickets in an innings in the first Test at Lord's, he appeared to have finally made it but his performances in the one-day series here, during which he went for seven an over, seemed to have taken him back to square one.

Now he has the biggest opportunity of his life. We will see if he takes it.