Australia's Ricky Ponting reacts after he was named Cricketer ofthe Year and Captain of the Year at the International Cricket Council Awards ceremony in Johannesburg yesterday. - Reuters

Michael Vaughan provided England's highlight of the evening at an ICC annual awards dinner dominated by a series of presentations to Australia.

The leading side in Test and one-day cricket was recognised by a long list of awards to highlight its status, with captain Ricky Ponting walking away with two awards in addition to his inclusion in the Test and one-day teams of the year.

Ponting, who led his side to a 5-0 Ashes whitewash during the winter and lifted the Champions Trophy and World Cup, became the first player in history to lift the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for Cricketer of the Year in successive years and also won Captain of the Year and was named as captain of both composite sides.

"To win the Cricketer of the Year award for a second time is special. It's the sort of thing you can look back on at the end of your playing career and be very proud of - you must have done something right to win that award twice," said Ponting.

Kevin Pietersen was included in both the Test and one-day teams of the year but missed out to Mohammad Yousuf for the Test Player of the Year and Ponting for the Cricketer of the Year.

Ravi Bopara also lost out to an Australian in the Emerging Player of the Year category with Shaun Tait winning the award for his outstanding contribution to their World Cup success.

Claire Taylor, nominated for the Women's Cricketer of the Year award, lost out to India's Jhulan Goswami and Mark Benson was also disappointed in the Umpire of Year category, which was won by Australia's Simon Taufel for the fourth successive year.

But Australia did not complete the clean sweep of the major awards with Yousuf becoming the first Pakistan player in history to win Test player of the year after averaging over 90 during the qualification period.

Matthew Hayden completed Australia's memorable evening by winning one-day player of the year after top-scoring at this year's World Cup despite being under threat for his place in the build-up to the tournament.

"World Cup years are very special because they reflect where you are as a nation and it's been a special year for Australia," added Hayden.