Gayle takes top WI honour

Chris Gayle was named 2006 West Indies international cricketer of the year at the annual West Indies Players' Association awards event on Monday.

Gayle is currently the No.2 ranked allrounder in ODIs and won the overall award ahead of Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Jerome Taylor. During 2006 he scored 690 Test runs at 38 and took 12 wickets at 43 while plundering 1217 ODI runs at 42 and taking 20 wickets at 33.

Taylor picked up the emerging player of the year award, Daren Ganga Test player of the year and Sarwan ODI player of the year. The women's award went to Jamaican Stephanie Taylor