Double gong for England pair

Ian Bell and Andrew Flintoff

England batsman Ian Bell was named as emerging player of the year, and captain Andrew Flintoff included in the world Test and ODI teams of the year at the International Cricket Council awards ceremony.

Bell has been rewarded for establishing himself in the Test and one-day teams after slipping out of favour post-Ashes.

Three hundreds against Pakistan capped a fine summer for the 24-year-old Warwickshire batsman, who pipped colleagues Monty Panesar and Alastair Cook in the youngsters' category.

After being named emerging player of the year, Bell said: “It has been a good year for me. It is a massive honour for me to win this award and I would just really like to say thank you to everyone in England for helping me to get this far.

“My team-mates have been great over the past year - it has been really good fun to play with them. We have a tough task coming up (with the Ashes) but I couldn’t think of a better bunch of guys to be going to Australia with.”

Ian Bell © Getty Images

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ICC chief executive officer Malcolm Speed said: “For some players it can take a long time to get used to life at the top level but Ian has done very well in a short space of time and he clearly has a very exciting career ahead of him.

“On behalf of ICC I would like to offer Ian our congratulations. He is a fine player and seems to be growing in confidence every time he goes out into the middle.”

Bell is the third recipient of the award following on from team-mate Kevin Pietersen last year and India's Irfan Pathan in 2004.

With Bell on his way to Australia, he was secretly presented with his trophy by West Indies captain Brian Lara during the ICC Champions Trophy.

England also won the 'spirit of cricket' award for the sportsmanship shown during their Ashes series.

Australian Brett Lee, who was famously consoled by Flintoff after the two-run defeat at Edgbaston which levelled the 2005 Ashes series at 1-1, presented the award to ECB chairman David Morgan.

“The health of the game depends on the maintenance of the spirit of the game and I am pleased that the spirit is such a high level,” Morgan said.

Injured Michael Vaughan was overlooked for the captain of the year award as Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene claimed it at the annual ceremony in Mumbai.

India’s Rahul Dravid and Australia’s Ricky Ponting were also nominated but all were surprisingly overtaken by Jayawardene, who only took over the captaincy for the tour of England this year.

Mahela Jayawardene was named captain of the year © Getty Images

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Although Vaughan had been sidelined through injury for the past 11 months, he was fancied for the award as the qualification period included the final four Tests of the 2005 Ashes.

The qualification period began on August 1, 2005 and closed on August 8, 2006.

Despite their Ashes success, however, Flintoff was the only Englishman who made the Test team of the year.

Five Australians were included, led by Ponting, Michael Hussey and Matthew Hayden at the top of the order with veteran bowlers Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath also selected. Dravid was appointed to captain the side.

Ponting was also named Test player of the year and player of the year, after an outstanding sequence with the bat.

He struck nine hundreds in 16 Test appearances, the first of which, his 156 at Old Trafford, helped Australia avoid defeat in the third Test against England last summer.

Flintoff was also the only English presence in the one-day team of the year.

Jayawardene was named as the captain of the side with Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Brett Lee and Hussey also making the XI.

To continue the Australian theme Simon Taufel took the umpiring award for the third year on the trot.