Christian Dawson, Monty's university lecturer © Siddartha Vaidyanathan

You can imagine Monty Panesar in a class, diligent and attentive, grasping concepts eagerly and pumping his fists when he cracked a problem. At the IT department of the University of Loughborough Christian Dawson, a senior lecturer, remembers Monty from the batch of 2005 and terms him "quiet, yet hardworking".

It's tough locating Dawson and one needs to weave through the labyrinthine university corridors. He is a bit confused about the spelling, though he remembers him well, and struggles initially to find his records on the database. "Yeah, here he is," he says, “he's done pretty well for himself, hasn't he?"

Dawson taught Monty Software Project Management in his final year. He remembers a few students talking of his cricketing talent and beamed when he heard he was in the England squad that toured India last year. "On our open days we always tell our students that Monty was a student here. We promote sports in a huge way. I'm quite happy to give students extensions to go and play for their counties and clubs."

Monty first visited the National Cricket Centre while studying at the university. "He popped in here when he was studying and we were very impressed with what we saw," says Guy Jackson, the Operations Manager of the academy. "He had played Under-19 cricket earlier but training here really fast-tracked his progress. He was lucky he went to university here, the academy here was just next door.”

A picture of Monty adorns the walls of the Sports Centre and he's part of an illustrious list of Loughborough alumni. There's Paula Radcliffe, the long-distance runner who’s currently the world record holder for the women’s marathon, there’s Sebastian Coe, the former Olympic gold medallist in the 1500 metre category, there’s Clive Woodward, England's rugby World Cup winning coach, and there’s Donna Kellogg, the former national Badminton champion.

"If you look at the annual championships conducted by the British University Sports Association (BUSA), an event where more than 100 universities take part, Loughborough are usually the runaway winners. Our women have claimed the overall championship for the last 28 years running while our men have managed it for 26 years on the trot. Excellence in sports draws a number of sportsmen to our university. We have lots of sports scholarships too."
Coming from Loughborough, Monty has a big legacy to live up to. But he’s done pretty well so far, hasn’t he?