Floral tribute to Surrey's Ben Hollioake at the Oval
Devastated as the players will be at the news of Ben Hollioake's death, it is not the first time that a Test match has continued in an atmosphere of shock and sadness after the sudden demise of a cricketer closely associated with the England team.
Ken Barrington was assistant manger of the 1980/81 tour of the West Indies when he died of a heart attack shortly after the close of play on the second day in Barbados.
And Graham Kersey, the Surrey wicketkeeper, was involved in a fatal car crash two days before the start of the second Test against Zimbabwe in December 1996.
In Barrington's case, the immediacy of the tragedy and the affection with which he was held by all members of Ian Botham's team in the Caribbean prompted lengthy discussions on whether the Test should continue.
It was decided that it should, though both sides and the capacity 15,000 crowd at Bridgetown stood for a minute's silence before the start of the third day.
One of the great post-war batsman, Barrington was 50 when he died.
But the loss of Kersey would have affected the England players in Zimbabwe, most of all his county colleagues, Graham Thorpe and Alec Stewart, in a very different way.
Like Hollioake, Kersey was in Australia when he was involved in a car crash and, critically ill in hospital for a week, he died on New Year's day 1997, aged only 25.
The England players would have been aware of the seriousness of Kersey's condition throughout the Test in Harare.
And on the day of his death, they played the second of three one-day internationals.
All three, Hollioake, Kersey and Barrington, were, of course, Surrey cricketers.
The sense of tragedy is all the more acute for Adam Hollioake, elder - and inseparable - brother of Ben, dedicating his county's Benson and Hedges Cup victory in 1997 to the young wicketkeeper.
"You could rely on him totally," Adam said of Kersey at the time of his death. "You could get the best wicketkeeper in the world, but he couldn't possibly fill the gap."
The gap left by the loss of his brother, six years his junior, will naturally be infinitely harder to fill.
In time, he will be reassured by the knowledge that others share that loss, not least Thorpe who has twice been asked to play through tragedy.
Consider, too, the words of Test Match Special commentator Henry Blofeld in his autobiography, A Thirst for Life, on Barrington's death.
Barrington, who had scored a century at the Kensington Oval in 1960 in his first innings against the West Indies, was in sombre mood after England's poor batting effort on the second day in 1981.
He dined with his wife and returned to his Holiday Inn bedroom where he died shortly afterwards.
Blofeld wrote: "It must have been extremely difficult for the players to continue with the match the next day and in spite of a brilliant 116 by Graham Gooch in England's second innings, the West Indies won by almost 300 runs.
"I shall never forget the devastating sense of loss and hopelessness in the three days after Ken's death. He was such a friend to us all."