Indian pace bowler Irfan Pathan was named the Emerging Player of the Year in front of 1000 guests at the ICC Awards at London's Alexandra Palace on Tuesday nigh.
The 19-year-old claimed the award in a category featuring some of international cricket's most talented players.
The ICC Awards, presented by Hyundai in association with FICA, recognised the game's most outstanding players of the past 12 months.
Accepting his award, Pathan paid tribute to his family and friends: "My family has supported me a lot as well as my coaches, right throughout my career. Everyone has helped me and I'd like to thank them all."
ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed said: "On behalf of the ICC and the cricket community, we congratulate Irfan Pathan on winning the Emerging Player of the Year award. He is a highly gifted player and along with the other nominees in this category, all have very bright futures in cricket."
With 100 votes, Pathan claimed the award ahead of Pakistan's Yasir Hameed (75 votes). Australia's Michael Clarke finished in third place with 45 votes, while another Pakistan youngster, Umar Gul, rounded out the top four on 21 votes.
In the 12-month voting period (1 August 2003 to 31 July 2004), Pathan played five Test matches and 18 One-Day Internationals.
He took 16 Tests wickets at an average of 38.00 during the voting period, and 36 ODI scalps at an average of 23.19, including best figures of 4-24 against Zimbabwe in the VB tri-series in Australia in February.
Pathan's 36 ODI wickets was more than double the tally of any of his colleagues in the Emerging Player of the Year category, with Australia's Michael Clarke (16 wickets) the next highest wicket-taker in limited-over matches during the year.
Nominees for the Emerging Player of the Year Award must have been under 26-years-of-age at the start of the voting period (1 August 2003), and have played no more than five Test matches and/or 10 One-Day Internationals before the start of the voting period.
Voting for the Emerging Player of the Year was completed by the 50-member ICC Awards voting Academy, who cast a 3-2-1 vote (3 votes being the greater value) from the list of nominees, with the votes tallied to produce a winner.
The voting Academy included the 10 ICC Full Member captains, the Emirates Elite Panel of eight ICC Umpires, seven members of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Referees (the eighth member did not officiate in the voting period), and a combination of 25 former legends and respected members of the media.
