There are four different categories for the inaugural Best Player Awards: Best ODI Batsman, Best ODI Bowler, Best Test Batsman, Best Test Bowler. As only a single Twenty20 International was played this year, there will be no awards for Twenty20 performances.

The first category, Best ODI Batsman, has a minimum requirement of 250 ODI runs. Any batsman with less than this is not eligible for the award. The number one ranked batsman in ODI cricket, is Young Twig of Sitepoint.com.

Young Twig was among the first players to represent Sitepoint.com at ODI level. But after a large player exodus mid-year, where all but 3 of the original squad departed, Young Twig has not represented Sitepoint.com again. He played 5 ODI's, and scored 3 half centuries, the highest of which was 77. Amassing 265 runs at a strike rate of nearly 110, Young Twig was a clear first for the Best ODI Batsman, with a numerical ranking of 56.86. The next highest was AsifTheManRahman with a ranking of 48.73 (Banglacricket.com), followed by greatbar - 48.28 (Hawkheadquarters.com), Equentity - Jamie - 46.58 (Webhostingtalk.com) and joomlaguy.com - 45.73 (Webhostingtalk.com).

The minimum requirement to be the Best ODI Bowler was 15 wickets. Wackaloony, of Fishlipps.no-ip.org, was the recipient.

In 7 ODI's, Wackaloony has taken 19 wickets from 68 overs. At a strike rate of 21.5, Wackaloony is taking over 2 wickets a game on average, while he dismisses a batsman just over every 18 runs. With a numerical ranking of 25.50, Freezmizer of CricketMX.com was a distant second, on 20.00. Glen Nugent - 18.68 (Hawkheadquarters.com), Slidey - 17.87 (Webhostingtalk.com) and BONGOMAN - 14.64 (CricketMX.com) were also in the top 5.

The Best Test Batsman was required to score at least 250 runs, and the docs mum of CricketMX.com, did just that, and exceeded all expectations in the process, with a ranking of 31.43.

With 356 runs in 3 Test matches, the docs mum has scored a total of 4 First Class centuries, 2 of which were at Test level. She averages 89.00, and lays shared claim, with Sitepoint.com's Heman maximus, who is ranked second overall with a numerical ranking of 29.52, to the highest individual Test score of 167.

saint_mite - 21.33 (Saintsational.com), Rat - 17.96 (CricketMX.com) and Nicky - 16.06 (Sitepoint.com) take up the other 3 spots in the Test batting top 5.

Like with the ODI bowling, the Best Test Bowler was required to take at least 15 wickets. Halo-9 has played 4 Test's for Saintsational.com, and has taken 21 wickets at 16.43. With a strike rate of 30.1 to complement this, in addition to a 5 wicket haul, and two 4 wicket hauls, Halo-9 was well clear of Hmmm as 2006's best Test bowler.

Hmmm - 16.80 (BalladP2P.com), HSVKing - 15.03 (Saintsational.com), fisherboy - 11.54 (Sitepoint.com) and tunebud - 11.15 (CricketMX.com) followed Halo-9.