"We lost Fred at 12.15pm (1115GMT) this afternoon," Veronica Trueman said.

Yorkshire legend Trueman, the first man to take 300 Test wickets, against Australia at The Oval in 1964, was diagnosed with a form of lung cancer in May.

His final Test haul of 307 wickets was a world record which stood until 1976, when it was broken by West Indies off-spinner Lance Gibbs.

Trueman made his Yorkshire debut in 1949 and retired from first-class cricket 20 years later, having taken more than 2,000 wickets.

Although the massive growth in the number of Test matches since Trueman retired means several bowlers have surpassed his record, few have equalled his average of 21.57 or his strike-rate of a wicket every 49 balls.

He later became well-known as a broadcaster on BBC Radio's Test Match Special, where millions of listeners relished his catchphrase, "I just don't know what's going off out there," as he decried the state of the modern game.

He also found fame with a totally different audience later in life when his daughter married the son of American actress Raquel Welch.

Former Yorkshire and England captain Brian Close, who was in the Yorkshire team when Trueman made his debut in 1949 and went on to lead him in the county's hugely successful era in the 1960s, said cricket would be the poorer for Trueman's passing.

"I captained many great cricketers -- but none finer," Close told reporters at Yorkshire's Headingley headquarters, where England were playing a one-day international against Sri Lanka on Saturday.

"Yorkshire has lost a great cricketer and a great character. He was a great wit -- a lovely fellow, and we all enjoyed his company and playing with him."

And Close said Trueman's work-rate for both club and country made him stand out from current cricketers.

"He was better than they are now, got through so much more work -- 1100 overs in a season.

"He was a great outswing bowler -- a fast bowler who also made it go away off the pitch," added Close of Trueman, whose pace partnership with Brian Statham was the mainstay of the England attack from the middle 1950s to the early 1960s.

England batting great Geoff Boycott, who made his Yorkshire debut when Trueman was a senior figure in the side in the 1960s, said: "He always said something that made you laugh -- I can't repeat most of it -- but he was also genuinely fast, nasty, aggressive and a truly great bowler.

"Great is an over-used word -- but he was great. He didn't play against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, he bowled against West Indies when they had great batsmen like (Rohan) Kanhai, (Frank) Worrell, (Everton) Weekes, (Clyde) Walcott, and (Garry) Sobers."

Raymond Illingworth, another longstanding Yorkshire colleague of Trueman's said: "You hear a lot about how good certain fast bowlers have been but this fellow was really the best, there is absolutely no doubt about that.

"He was a great character but with a bit of fun about him and he was never nasty," said the off-spinner who went on to captain England after leaving Yorkshire for Leicestershire.

"We played for twenty years together from being no more than boys in 1948 and I have lost a great friend and colleague."

Cricketers from abroad also recognised Trueman's quality.

Former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd, the match referee at Headingley, who came into county cricket with Lancashire just as Trueman's career was winding down in one-day matches for Derbyshire, said: "I never faced him but I know he was one of the finest fast bowlers we have ever seen.

"We have lost a great friend and a great cricketer."

England came out to field at Headingley wearing black armbands and, as further marks of respect, there was a minute's applause and then silence before Sri Lanka's innings began.

Yorkshire also flew flags at Headingley at half-mast and Stewart Regan, the club's chief executive, said: "Yorkshire County Cricket Club sends its condolences to Fred's wife Veronica, family and friends.

"We are all deeply upset at this news."