Steyn pick of the bunch

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The International Cricket Council has announced its world Test team of the year, as chosen by a specially appointed selection panel chaired by West Indies batting legend Clive Lloyd.

The ICC awards recognise the best international players of the past 12 months, and England pair Kevin Pietersen and Ryan Sidebottom have both been included in the final XI for a dream Test team during that period.

World Test Team of the Year 2008 (in batting order):

Graeme Smith (SA, captain)
Virender Sehwag (Ind)
Mahela Jayawardene (SL)
Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI)
Kevin Pietersen (Eng)
Jacques Kallis (SA)
Kumar Sangakkara (SL, wicketkeeper)
Brett Lee (Aus)
Ryan Sidebottom (Eng)
Dale Steyn (SA)
Muttiah Muralitharan (SL)
12th man: Stuart Clark (Aus)

Six countries are represented in the 12-man line-up and three players – Kevin Pietersen of England and the Sri Lanka pair of Kumar Sangakkara and Muttiah Muralitharan – also appeared in the World Test Team of the Year in 2007. South Africa’s skipper Graeme Smith is named as captain of the team.

South Africa pace bowler Dale Steyn won the Test Player of the Year award beating off competition from Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies, Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene and Proteas team-mate Jacques Kallis to win the first ICC award of his career.

During the 12-month voting period, Steyn put in some remarkable performances, taking 86 wickets at an average of just 18.10 in the 14 Test matches he played. No other bowler took more than 58 wickets in the same period and he was the only bowler to earn an average less than 21.50.

Dale Steyn was rewarded for a prolific year in which he took 86 wickets at an average of 18.10

The 25-year-old from Phalaborwa in the northern province of Limpopo also had the best strike-rate with a wicket every 31.9 deliveries and he boasted two 10-wicket matches and six five-wicket innings.

After collecting his award from former West Indies captain and current chairman of the ICC cricket committee Clive Lloyd, Steyn said: “I have had a pretty decent year I suppose but I didn’t think about winning this award until the past few days.

“I don’t really know how I feel. Perhaps tomorrow morning it will have sunk in for me because obviously this is a huge award and it’s massive for me.

“What I would like to do is maybe turn it into a goal for the future. I would like to win this award again and maybe other awards too so it would be something to aim for.

“I am really enjoying my cricket at the moment – we have been involved in a few great series recently so I count myself as lucky to be a part of this South Africa team.

“It’s a good time for South African cricket even though we lost four one-day matches in England. Winning this award makes up a little for that but I am still going home knowing we were beaten in the one-dayers. But we have some new faces coming into the one-day side and we are still very positive for the future.”