TIMELINE OF TURMOIL

OCTOBER 2013

DOWNTON, a former England wicketkeeper, is appointed managing sirector of England and Wales Cricket Board, with his position taking effect from February 1, 2014.

FEBRUARY 2014

AFTER the Ashes whitewash, Kevin Pietersen and head coach Andy Flower are sacked. After days of silence, the official line on Pietersen’s dismissal is that the ECB wanted to ‘create a culture’ in which captain Alastair Cook had ‘the full support of all players’.

MARCH 2014

ENGLAND suffer a humiliating 45-run defeat to Holland in the World T20. Ravi Bopara topscored for England with just 18.

APRIL 2014

DOWNTON appoints Peter Moores, who had spent the previous four seasons as head coach at Lancashire, for a second spell as

England head coach.

MAY 2014

DOWNTON and the ECB issue an apology to Pietersen for claiming he appeared ‘disinterested’ and ‘distracted’ during the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney.

JUNE 2014

ENGLAND lose a Test series at home to Sri Lanka. The south Asian side had previously won on English soil in 1998 — in a one-off Test match.

JULY-AUG 2014

ENGLAND lose the second Test against India, but come back to win the home series 3-1. In the fifth Test, England inflict upon India their third heaviest defeat in history.

DECEMBER 2014

COOK is sacked as one-day captain and replaced by Eoin Morgan, marking the end of a sorry year for England in which they won just 18 of their 48 matches across all formats.

FEB-MAR 2015

ENGLAND endure a dreadful World Cup campaign, failing to advance from the group stage and finishing behind Bangladesh, who sealed their exit with a 15-run victory.

APRIL 2015

DOWNTON departs as ECB managing director. The ECB are to create a new role of ‘director of England cricket’ ahead of the Ashes series.