Ponting secures major honours at ICC Awards

A delighted Ricky Ponting shows off his two trophies © Cricinfo

Ricky Ponting, Australia's captain, picked up both major honours at the annual ICC Awards in Mumbai, being named Player of the Year and Test Player of the Year.

Ponting was also named on both the ICC ODI and Test Teams of the Year which were selected by a five-man selection panel consisting of Sunil Gavaskar, Ian Healy, Arjuna Ranatunga, Waqar Younis and Allan Donald.

Australia's Michael Hussey was named as the winner of the ODI Player of the Year. During the voting period Hussey played 25 ODIs and enjoyed a spectacular level of success. In those matches he scored 769 runs at an average of 64.80. He beat off the challenge of Ponting, India's Yuvraj Singh and Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene to secure the award.

Jayawardene was named Captain of the Year. He beat off competition from Ponting, Michael Vaughan, England's Ashes-winning skipper, and India's captain Rahul Dravid.

Dravid was named captain of the World Test Team of the Year. Six teams were represented in the 12-man line-up, four of which - Ponting, Andrew Flintoff, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath - were also named in the World Test Team of the Year in 2005.

Jayawardene was chosen to lead the ODI Team of the Year and five countries were represented in the 12-man line-up. But only three players - Adam Gilchrist, Flintoff and Andrew Symonds - also appeared in the World ODI Team of the Year in 2005. Indeed, Gilchrist and Flintoff also appeared in the 2004 line-up.

England batsman Ian Bell was picked as as Emerging Player of the Year. During the voting period between August 1, 2005 and August 8, 2006, Bell played 13 Tests, scoring 958 runs at an average of 41.65. He hit four centuries and five fifties in that time.

Australia's captain Karen Rolton won the inaugural Women's Player of the Year award and Simon Taufel was named Umpire of the Year for the third successive time.

The England team won the Spirit of Cricket Award for the second year running. The award is given to the side which, in the opinion of the Elite Panel of Umpires and Referees and the captains of the ten Test teams, has best conducted itself on the field within the spirit of the game.

World Test Team of the Year 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Michael Hussey, 3 Ricky Ponting, 4 Rahul Dravid (capt), 5 Mohammed Yousuf, 6 Kumar Sangakkar (wk), 7 Andrew Flintoff, 8 Shane Warne, 9 Makhaya Ntini, 10 Muttiah Muralitharan, 11 Glenn McGrath. 12th man: Brett Lee.

World ODI Team of the Year 1 Adam Gilchrist (wkt), 2 MS Dhoni, 3 Ricky Ponting, 4 Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 5 Yuvraj Singh, 6 Michael Hussey, 7 Andrew Flintoff, 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Shane Bond, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan. 12th man: Andrew Symonds.