KEY POINTS:
Mudhsuden Singh Panesar, otherwise known as Monty, might be Northamptonshire's favourite son now but he still has some way to go before he can claim the sort of affection reserved here for another England legend.
Frank Tyson's cricket career was notable for its brevity but, while he was around, he inflicted the sort of damage you'd expect from someone with the sobriquet 'Typhoon'.
Richie Benaud described Tyson as the quickest he had ever seen and in his 40-plus years of broadcasting he has never felt the need to alter that assessment.
Tyson was a proud Lancastrian but ruined his chances of playing for his native county when he turned up late for a second XI match and then limped off after five unimpressive overs.
So he travelled south to Wantage Rd and started blowing them away. He took a wicket with his sixth ball for Northants against the touring Indians in 1952 and ended up with 525 wickets for the unfashionable county.
It was in Ashes tests the legend was born, though. In the 1954-55 series in which England retained the Ashes, Tyson took 10 wickets in the second test at Sydney and nine more in the third at Melbourne.
The second innings at the McG was the high-water mark in his career. Bowling downwind it is reported that Tyson frightened the life out of Australia in taking 7-27 and it is regarded to this day as the fastest spell in test history.
There have been plenty of quick with short, destructive careers in cricket but what perhaps added to the legend of Tyson is that he was a clever man. A graduate of prestigious Durham University, Tyson had the unsettling habit of sledging batsmen with the works of Shakespeare and Wordsworth.
Injury was a constant in Tyson's career, for which the Australians, thoroughly sick of the combination of raw pace and King Lear, must have been grateful. In just 17 tests he took 76 wickets at 18.56.
As is the modern custom, Panesar did not play this weekend, leaving New Zealand to get their eye in against the friendlier left-arm orthodox of Graeme White.
