England Cricket Team is BBC Team of the Year

The England cricket team have picked up the prestigious award of BBC Team of the Year at the 2009 BBC Sports Personality show. The team was nominated following the successful Ashes triumph in the summer which saw England regain the Urn with a 2-1 series victory.

This is the second time England’s cricketers have won the award following a victorious Ashes summer. The team also picked up the prize following the 2005 success.

Andrew Strauss, who was also nominated for the much coveted BBC Sports Personality of The Year award, was full of praise for his team and what they have been through in all forms of cricket this year.

"It is a truly great honour. It has been a long and arduous 12 months and a lot of ups and downs.

"What I am most proud about is that we have stuck together in some pretty tough times. That is what got us over the line in the Ashes and this award can act as a spur to achieve more in the future."

England did not enjoy the best of starts to 2009 losing 1-0 to the West Indies in a five-match test series. However they demonstrated their resolve to bounce back and win the one-day series 3-2. This was further enforced by a convincing 2-0 test series win at the start of the summer when the West Indies toured England.

England continued their test form in to the Ashes series and took a thrilling series 2-1 with a victory in the final test at the Oval. Australia, determined to salvage some pride, hit back with a dominant display of limited overs cricket to take the ODI series 6-1 as England’s indifferent form in the shorter format of the game continued.

However England provided a shock at the ICC Champions Trophy reaching the semi final after beating both South Africa and Sri Lanka. Once again it was Australia who England were unable to overcome crashing out in the Semi Finals by 9 wickets.

England are currently in South Africa and are set to return to test action against the Proteas today. The four match series begins at Centurion before Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg host the remaining fixtures.