Jhulan Goswami is ICC Women Cricketer of the Year

The year gone by hasn't been the best for the Men-in-Blue and unsurprisingly none of the Indian male cricketers made bagged top honours at the ICC Awards 2007. Forget top honours, of the 22 players chosen to make up the Test and ODI Teams of the Year, only one Indian made it to the list - Sachin Tendulkar. If it's any consolation, Zaheer Khan was chosen as the 12th man for the test squad.

Australia captain Rickey Ponting was named the ICC Player of the Year for the second consecutive year, while his colleague Matthew Hayden bagged the ODI Player of the Year award. Mohammad Yousuf of Pakistan was chosen as the Test Player of the Year. Interestingly, Yousuf was absent from the glittering awards ceremony in South Africa as he is busy preaching in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. This may also be Yousuf's last recognition as a Pakistan cricketer as he has joined the rebel Indian Cricket League.

Shaun Tait, the Australian quickie picked up the award for the Emerging Player of the Year while Thomas Odoyo of Kenya was selected as the Associate Player of the Year. For the fourth year running, Simon Taufel picked up the award for the Umpire of the Year.

While the men-in-blue disappointed, an Indian woman cricketer bagged top honours - Jhulan Goswami was chosen the ICC Women Cricketer of the Year. Jhulan who hails from Bengal has had an excellent year with the ball - her overall career econonmy records are astounding: 3.17 in ODIs and 2.10 in Tests. She was the first Indian woman to bag 10 wickets in a Test. Jhulan is also more than handy with the bat, averaging over 20 in ODIs and has a top score of 69 in Tests. The glitterning trophy given away to Jhulan, crafted by Swarovski, featured a crystal cricket ball studded with over 4,200 Swarovski crystal chantons!