Ricky Ponting has dedicated his international player-of-the-year awards double to the Australian team, saying the runs he made through the year were scored for the friends who had helped his side rebound from last year's Ashes loss.
Ponting's ability to stand tall as a batsman, despite the slings and arrows that have come the way of the captain who lost the Ashes, was recognised when he won the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy as the International Cricket Council's overall player of the year, as well as Test player of the year.
In a winning night for Australia at the third annual awards in Mumbai, Michael Hussey was "very shocked and honoured" to win the one-day player title after his first full year in international cricket, while Australia had five players named in the honorary Test side, and four in the one-day team.
Ponting, Hussey, Shane Warne, Matthew Hayden and Glenn McGrath made the Test XI, with Brett Lee 12th man. Ponting, Hussey, Lee and Adam Gilchrist made the one-day side, with Andrew Symonds 12th man.
Completing the Australian honours, Karen Rolton won women's player of the year, while Simon Taufel was named umpire of the year for the third year running.
But the night belonged to Ponting, who beat a shortlist for player of the year also including Hussey, Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralidaran and Pakistan's Mohammed Yousuf, and a Test-player shortlist also featuring Muralidaran, Yousuf and Warne.
Ponting enjoyed stunning personal success in the voting period, which ran from August 1 last year to August 8 this year. He was the leading runscorer in Tests, with 1791 from 16 matches at an average of 68, with nine centuries. Hayden ranked second with 1559 runs at 53. Ponting was also Australia's leading one-day runscorer in the relevant period, and 10th overall, with 920 runs at 48.
"Even to be nominated on the short-list was a great thrill, but to walk away with two awards is a great shock to me. I thought I might be a chance to win one award, but to walk away with two is very special. I thought Warney would've won the Test award pretty convincingly," said Ponting, rated the world's No. 1 Test batsman under the ICC rankings. "Personally, it's been a pretty satisfying year and it has been for the rest of the team. A lot of the guys have had great years, as you see with so many of them being in the Test and one-day teams of the year. We had to show a lot of character at our first (post-Ashes) opportunity.
"To have a bit of personal success has been great. But what we're aiming to do is win as many games for your team and for your mates as you possibly can. That's the reason you play the game. There's no doubt that some of the runs I made this year or some of the things I did was for my mates — it's for the guys you play with and spend nine or 10 months of the year with."
Hussey beat a shortlist of one-day player nominees comprising Ponting, Mahela Jayawardene and India's Yuvraj Singh to claim an honour that was fitting reward for a stunning year after such a long wait to play international cricket.
"I'm very shocked and honoured to win this award. I can't believe it. I've got to pinch myself," said Hussey, who in the voting period averaged 64 in one-dayers. "You always need a bit of luck in the game and I've been lucky in that all mine has come in the one year. Hopefully, there's still a bit more around the corner."
The voting period covered the last four Tests of last year's Ashes — thus excluding Australia's only success in the 2-1 series loss. Ponting was still nominated for captain of the year, his side having won 11 and drawn one of its 12 Tests since the Ashes, and 18 of 25 one-dayers. Winning Ashes captain Michael Vaughan was also nominated, but the award went to Sri Lanka's Jayawardene.
- TREVOR MARSHALLSEA