India wins `Team of the Year` honour from British daily

London, Dec 28 (PTI) India cricket captain Mahendra Singh
Dhoni and his men ran away with the 'Team of the Year' honour
while Sachin Tendulkar overtaking Brian Lara as the highest
Test run accumulator was considered the 'Feat of the Year' by
the 'Sunday Telegraph' here Sunday.

The leading British newspaper heaped praise on the Indian
team and its most celebrated member for taking the game to a
higher level.

Choosing the side as the 'Team of the Year', the
newspaper said, "Their 2-0 Test series victory over Australia
officially ended their opponents' era of relentless
domination. And then England suffered. Talent oozes from their
every pore.

"Retiring legends are being replaced with astonishing
ease. There is depth in every department, and in Mahendra
Singh Dhoni they possess not just a wonderful leader but a
wonderfully impressive man too," Steve James wrote in the
daily.

Describing Tendulkar's overtaking of Brian Lara as Test
cricket's highest run scorer as 'Feat of the Year', the writer
said it reflected "genuine confirmation of greatness".

"What more can you say? Maybe that his hands are clearly
too low on the bat handle. He'd never get away with that as a
youngster in England."

The newspaper's 'Player of the Year' honour went to Sri
Lankan mystery bowler Ajantha Mendis.

"Forget the usual suspects (Graeme Smith's 1,500-plus
runs, Shivnarine Chanderpaul's average of over 100 and Dale
Steyn's 64 wickets) and instead laud a chap called
Balapuwaduge Ajantha Winslo Mendis, a name as beguiling and
mysterious as the spinners the Sri Lankan purveys.

"off-spinners, leg-spinners, googlies, flippers but the
signature delivery is the 'carrom ball'. As a batsman you're
better off trying to read a Russian novel," it said of Mendis.

England's return to India for Test series after Mumbai
terror attacks was chosen 'best decision' while 'ECB's bedding
of Allen Stanford' was picked the 'worst decision'.

The writer chose Brendon McCullum's stunning 158 not out
as the best Indian Premier League innings but ran down the
hugely successful Twenty20 event.

"Too many matches played by teams I didn't know,
recognise or care for, on grounds with boundaries
unnecessarily shortened and occupied by fielders posing as
escorts."

The arrest of former England Test cricketer Chris Lewis
on drug smuggling charges was picked as the 'Shame on the
Game'.

"If actually convicted of drug smuggling, of course, but
a Christmas inside is not a great sign. Let's hope Adams is
not to cricket what Martin Johnson is now to rugby."

The newspaper's 'Game's Shame' and 'Most Horrible
Harbinger' went to Zimbabwe and Pakistan not playing a Test in
2008 respectively. PTI