Captain Ricky Ponting emerged as the star of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) awards ceremony on Friday as Australia dominated by claiming four prizes.
Ponting was adjudged the year’s best player and the most outstanding Test cricketer of the season.
Ponting edged out champion leg-spinners Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan along Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf — the other short-listed Test players.
”It’s a great thrill to be nominated, and walking away with two awards is a great shock,” said Ponting after receiving his player-of-the-year award from Indian batting master Sachin Tendulkar.
”It’s out of the world; it’s a special feeling. Obviously the most thrilling one is the player of the year award,” Ponting said.
Other Australians who were selected as the year’s best players were Michael Hussey (best one-day cricketer) and Karen Rolton (best woman player). Another Australian, Simon Taufel, won the best umpire’s award for the third successive year.
Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene clinched the captain-of-the-year award ahead of more experienced players — Ponting, Rahul Dravid of India and Michael Vaughan of England. Jayawardene was also named captain of the world’s one-day international team.
Dravid was chosen skipper of the Test team for the year that featured five Australians, two Sri Lankans and one player each from England, Pakistan and South Africa.
Underscoring world number one Australia’s domination, four Aussie players were named in the limited-overs team of the year while India were not far behind with three players. Andrew Flintoff was the only Englishman picked in both the Test and one-day line-ups.
England won the newly introduced Spirit of Cricket award, while their middle-order batsman Ian Bell, who scored three centuries against Pakistan last summer, was named emerging player of the year.
Pakistan’s banned fast-bowler Mohammad Asif did not attend the function despite being nominated in the category for emerging players.
A tribunal in Pakistan on Wednesday banned Asif for one year while fellow-fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar was handed two years. Both fast-bowlers tested positive for using a banned substance, nandrolone, in doping tests conducted by the Pakistan Cricket Board just before the Champions Trophy.
A galaxy of former Test stars, including Pakistan’s 1992 world cup-winning captain Imran Khan, ex-Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar, England’s Tony Greig and Tendulkar presented the awards.
The other members of the ICC selection panel, which nominated the long list of players for each men’s award, were South African Allan Donald, former Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy, Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup-winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga and former Pakistan fast-bowler Waqar Younis.
Test team of the year: Matthew Hayden (Australia), Michael Hussey (Australia), Rahul Dravid (India, captain), Ricky Ponting (Australia), Mohammad Yousuf (Pakistan), Andrew Flintoff (England), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka), Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka), Shane Warne (Australia), Makhaya Ntini (South Africa), Glenn McGrath (Australia).
Limited-overs team of the year: Adam Gilchrist (Australia), Mahendra Dhoni (India), Ricky Ponting (Australia), Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka, captain), Yuvraj Singh (India), Michael Hussey (Australia), Andrew Flintoff (England), Irfan Pathan (India), Brett Lee (Australia), Shane Bond (New Zealand), Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka). — Sapa-AP