KEY POINTS:
The nice guys finished last in Manchester and with smiles that can only turn to horror as they reflect on how glory is lost when it is grasped by such fickle hands.
Like the Old Trafford pitch itself, almighty cracks appeared in the New Zealand side, with the omens around Daniel Vettori's captaincy even extending to the second innings scoreboard.
One for 111 - the ultimate in cricket's bad luck Nelson - will stand as a monument to Vettori's failed leadership unless he can turn this team around pronto. Forget the departing coach and all the cricketing sidekicks, because this is captaincy country.
Vettori was to have been the good shepherd, herding the lambs into the ways of test cricket. But, in an almost unassailable position against England, he meekly and inexplicably led his team to slaughter.
Rare indeed are the times in New Zealand history when they have a well-rated foe not only on the ropes, but with their senses scrambled.
England's batters - apart from the well-organised and reborn Andrew Strauss - were so befuddled in the first innings that even the sight of a classic New Zealand upwind trundler turned them into a wreck.
How could it all have gone so wrong, even taking into account Daniel Flynn's unfortunate injury?
The honeymoon period for Vettori's captaincy is over and this horrible failure must be judged against the harsh standards of international sport. After squandering a surprise series advantage at home to England this year, this sideways drift has reached the point where the leeway is over.
If Vettori cannot inspire and demand more than this, then the captaincy issue is not at rest. There must be serious questions over a side that can so blatantly betray one of the finest centuries ever scored by a New Zealand batsman, a rare gem that has already faded because of what followed.
They had even backed up Ross Taylor's magical ascent by sending England's first innings batsmen reeling, eking every drop out of a bowling attack based on Vettori's magic and Iain O'Brien's rhythmical sailing into the wind.
Then, with a remarkable and famous victory within their grasp - a result that would have set this overtaxed side of vastly different incomes on a promising course - they collapsed to an inglorious defeat which has England all cock-a-hoop again.
The Black Caps didn't fail because they were out-skilled, the common cause of our cricket grief. They failed in a few standard basics and lost the dogged determination that ought to be the heartbeat of the New Zealand game.
This was New Zealand cricket close to its worst, the needless returning of a gift, one that is unlikely to be sent their way again.
The first half of this series repudiated claims that the pre-tour Indian cash grab by five leading players would undercut the team's spirit and planning. But you had to wonder if the critics might have been correct, as leading members of these Black Caps flipped out of test-match mode at times.
Vettori and Jacob Oram were a disastrous run out tag team in the first innings - Oram hesitant and ponderous while captain Vettori crash-landed after being recorded airborne above the crease.
And on what turned out to be the final morning, the fielding misdemeanours were led by a senseless Brendon McCullum overthrow to the boundary, and a misfield by Vettori that should have had embers of embarrassment glowing through his whiskers.
Kyle Mills, another of the Indian stunners, chased a ball down with an awkward dive then threw it so far away from wicketkeeper McCullum that it looked set to land in the other Old Trafford. And Taylor failed to make the most of his form in the second innings the way the Ricky Pontings of this world make hay when the sun shines.
On witnessing this unravelling you could only surmise that the hamfisted art of Twenty20 cricket does nothing for long-term concentration, that the delights of playing for your country quickly fade when the bank balance stops accumulating at Jeff Thomson pace.
The English players have yet to discover the wonders of playing in these modern cash-rich cauldrons but India's financial might has allowed their league to cut across New Zealand's bow.
You can hardly deny the game's superstars the right to earn money beyond their wildest dreams, not unless you want a mutiny. But don't tell us that the mad scramble - on the field and in airport lounges - won't have some detrimental effect on an overmatched side in the test arena, where days of toil can be undone by an hour of woolly-headed thinking.
When the going was good for New Zealand at Manchester, one of this game's endearing sights was that of O'Brien smiling naturally at fortune good and bad. This big-hearted toiler of medium pace and ability was having what may turn out to be his finest test.
At one point, the finest of edges from Kevin Pietersen's bat sent the ball onto a pad and then sailing in a friendly loop to McCullum, who advanced at a jog and caught it in silence like a kid clapping softly at butterflies.
O'Brien alone appealed, and was left bemused as to why no one else was interested. He took this affront to his trade with such good grace that you had to smile back.
In retrospect though, you can only wonder at the lack of ruthless spirit. Taylor, the first innings batting hero, also smiles with such ease at any catch that it makes you feel uneasy. The job isn't done boys, and hasn't been for a long time.
The series concludes at the county ground which was once the professional home of the greatest New Zealand cricketer, Richard Hadlee, whose immaculate pursuit of personal goals set New Zealand on a golden era.
It was his attitude more than anything - there were certainly no vast riches in those days - that turned Hadlee from a wild gunslinger into one of test cricket's greatest assassins. His ways also rubbed off on those around him, even if he rubbed them up the wrong way.
Vettori, McCullum and Oram must set the standards, and quickly, before the captain finds he is leading a band of disparate wanderers away from a land of lukewarm promise.
With any luck, this horrible crash has wiped the smile off the Black Caps' faces and will result in a combative, hard-hearted outfit primed for revenge and redemption emerging at Hadlee's beloved Trent Bridge.
