The England team paid silent tribute

Now, a week after the event and with seven days to digest the loss of such a mercurial talent so suddenly taken away, many of England's fans have been discussing Ben's cricketing life and their memories of him in the bars around Auckland.

Mark Robson, a seemingly ever-present at England's away fixtures over the last few years, summed up the feelings of many sitting on the grass slope last Saturday morning.

"It was weird. It felt like I was on the outside looking in. I think that even to the really dedicated fans what was going on in the middle all seemed really insignificant for a while."

The suddeness of the announcement left an indelible mark on the Wellington Test match for freelance journalist Steve Beech.

He told me: "One of the hardest things to take in was the fact that we knew about Ben's death way before the players in the middle, especially as one of his county colleagues (Mark Ramprakash) was batting at the time.

"Not knowing whether or not they knew the news about Ben was awful."

Dan Neary, currently residing in Melbourne, travelled to India to watch England's one-day series in the sub-continent back in January. and is now in New Zealand

"I arrived late on the Saturday morning and saw the flags flying at half-mast. Obviously I had no idea it was for Ben and when a guy in the pub across the road from the ground told me the news I was gobsmacked.

Ben will be sadly missed

"It seems really, really weird to think that I was at Ben's last appearance in an England shirt in Kanpur less than two months ago."

Similar sentiments were voiced by builder Graham Gilbert.

Thumbing through the battered red notebook in which he records all the details of matches he has attended, he told me: "I remember he got us out of a sticky hole in Madras (Ben scored 37) and he also took a catch as 12th man in Napier.

"It's so sad that's it's the last thing I ever saw him do wearing the three lions of England."

Perhaps the most distressing aspect about the tragic accident that cost Ben his life is that it came at a time when he seemed at last capable of fulfilling his undoubted talent.

"It just seemed that he was establishing himself in the England one-day team and would play an important role in our World Cup ambitions," said Keith Pledger, a 36-year-old from London.

"It looked as if his massive talent might at last have been fulfilled and a return to the Test side wasn't out of the question. He'll be sadly missed."

And so say all of us.

You can contact Phil on his New Zealand adventure by sending an e-mail to a_longwayfromhome@hotmail.com