Gayle named Champions Trophy Player of Tournament

Mumbai, Nov 6 (UNI) West Indian master blaster Chris Gayle has been named Player of the Tournament of the ICC Champions Trophy which concluded here last night.

The 27-year-old Jamaican was tournament's highest run scorer with 474 to his credit at an average of 79 including three hundreds and a strike-rate of 92.94.

Gayle also took eight wickets with his off-spin, a mark only bettered by Jerome Taylor (13 wickets) among his team mates.

The award was decided by the ICC match referees at each match with the officials electing their top three players. Three points went to the player of the match, two to the second best player and one to the third. The Player of the Tournament was decided by adding together all the points.

Gayle beat Sri Lankan Upul Tharanga and Australian Damien Martyn by five points. Tharanga was second to Gayle in the run-scoring charts with 320 runs from six matches including hundreds against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Martyn was his side's top run-getter with 241 runs from five matches.

The Player of the Tournament trophy was presented to Gayle by former India captain Sunil Gavaskar at the presentation ceremony that followed yesterday's final here.

Top players of tournament: Chris Gayle (WI) 12 Damien Martyn (Aus) 7 Upal Tharanga (SL) 7 Stephen Fleming (NZ) 6 Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI) 6 Daniel Vettori (NZ) 5 Shane Watson (Aus) 5 Leading run-scorers: Chris Gayle (WI) 474 Ave 79 Upul Tharanga (SL) 320 53.33 Damien Martyn (Aus) 241 80.33 Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI) 222 55.50 Leading wicket-takers Jerome Taylor (WI) 13 Ave 22.07 Farveez Maharoof (SL) 12 15.83 Lasith Malinga (SL) 11 19.09 Kyle Mills (NZ) 10 11.80 Nathan Bracken (Aus) 10 19.40 Glenn McGrath (Aus) 10 15.80 UNI XC PDS AY VV1703