Gayle wins ICC Champions Trophy Player of the Tournament

West Indies all-rounder Chris Gayle is the runaway winner of the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 player of the tournament after an outstanding tournament for the 27-year-old Jamaican.

The opening batsman was comfortably the leading run-scorer in the tournament with 474 runs at an average of 79.00 and a strike-rate of 92.94 runs per hundred balls. Gayle scored three hundreds in the tournament, against Bangladesh, England and South Africa. And if that sort of contribution was not enough, Gayle also took four catches and captured eight wickets with his off-spin, a mark only bettered by Jerome Taylor (13 wickets) among his team mates.

The prize was decided by the ICC match referees at each match with the officials electing their top three players, in order. Three points went to the player of the match, two to the second best player and one to the third. The Player of the Tournament was decided by adding together all the points.

Gayle received the Player of the Tournament trophy from former India captain Sunil Gavaskar in the presentation ceremony that followed Sunday's final of the ICC Champions Trophy in Mumbai.

Gayle's closest rivals were Sri Lanka opener Upul Tharanga, also second to Gayle in the run-scoring charts with 320 runs from six matches including hundreds against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, and Damien Martyn of Australia, his side's top-run getter with 241 runs from five matches.

Man of the match in Sunday's ICC Champions Trophy final, Shane Watson, finished with five points.

The three ICC match referees on duty during the tournament were Ranjan Madugalle, Mike Procter and Jeff Crowe.

Australia won the final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 beating the defending champions the West Indies by eight wickets (Duckworth-Lewis method) after a rain-affected final.

The next ICC Champions Trophy is scheduled to be held in Pakistan in 2008.