ENGLAND women s captain Charlotte Edwards, from Pidley, has been named women s world cricketer of the year. Edwards, 28, led England to a successful defence of the Ashes in 2007/08, and averaged more than 50 in 18 one-day internationals during the eligibl

ENGLAND women's captain Charlotte Edwards, from Pidley, has been named women's world cricketer of the year.

Edwards, 28, led England to a successful defence of the Ashes in 2007/08, and averaged more than 50 in 18 one-day internationals during the eligible period.

Despite playing only one test match in the qualifying period - in which she scored 94 and 14 - Edwards scored 492 ODI runs at an average of 54.66 and took 15 ODI wickets at an average of 19.03.

Earlier this week Edwards led England to a 4-0 victory in their ODI series against India.

Edwards beat Australia's Lisa Sthalekar, Nicola Browne of New Zealand and Claire Taylor of England to the honour, which was handed out at the International Cricket Council's annual awards ceremony in Dubai on Wednesday evening (September 10).

Edwards told the assembled media: "This is a massive night for women's cricket. It's a huge honour for me to be involved with a ceremony like this - I'm so glad that the ICC is recognising the women's game.

"It's a big moment for the other girls who have been nominated for this and I am honoured to be included in that shortlist, let alone win it.

"Women's cricket has a big year ahead. It's fantastic for the game and an exciting time to be involved in women's cricket."

The full list of award winners is:

Cricketer of the Year Award - Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI).

Test Player of the Year Award - Dale Steyn (SA).

ODI Player of the Year - Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Ind).

Women's Cricketer of the Year - Charlotte Edwards (Eng).

Emerging Player of the Year - Ajantha Mendis (SL).

Associate ODI Player of the Year - Ryan ten Doeschate (NL).

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year - Yuvraj Singh (Ind).

Spirit of Cricket Award - Sri Lanka.

Umpire of the Year Award - Simon Taufel.

World Test Team of the Year 2008 is as follows (in batting order).

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

The ICC World ODI Team of the Year is (in batting order).

Herschelle Gibbs (SA), Sachin Tendulkar (Ind), Ricky Ponting (Aus, captain), Yunus Khan (Pak), Andrew Symonds (Aus), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Ind, wicketkeeper), Farveez Maharoof (SL), Daniel Vettori (NZ), Brett Lee (Aus), Mitchell Johnson (Aus), Nathan Bracken (Aus), 12th man: Salman Butt (Pak).