England wins BBC Team of the Year Award; Andy Flower named Best Coach

England cricketers win Team of the Year (photo: BBC)

At the 2011 edition of the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year (SPOTY) Awards, English cricket team was named as the ‘Team of the year’ with its coach Andy Flower winning the ‘Coach of the year’ award. 2011 is the year, the England Team secured the first ever Ashes victory in Australia since 1987. The team also rose up to the top of the world test ranking this year after defeating India in a home test series.

In the beginning of 2011, England team led by Andrew Strauss won the Ashes series in Australia with a margin of 3-1. They beat Sri Lanka 1-0 and whitewashed the test series against India 4-0 to be crowned as the number one test side of the world. The team also managed to win home ODI series against India and Sri Lanka. The England team has not been defeated in any test series yet since May 2009 which is quite a remarkable feat in world cricket. The team is unbeaten in tests for more than one year. the last test they had lost was in Australia in December 2010 during the Ashes.

England cricket team beat Premier League champions Manchester United and Wales’ rugby union team to win the award. This is the third time in last 7 years that the Team has won the prestigious award.

The Zimbabwean coach Andy Flower beat Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson and Wales rugby coach Warren Gatland in the race to win the Coach of the Year award. On the occasion, Flower said, “This is a very proud moment for me to stand here, England has been very good to me and my family. I’m very proud to be part of the England cricket team. They have done some wonderful things over the last couple of years.”

Andrew Strauss while receiving the Team of the year award on behalf of his team said, “This is a very special award for a couple of reasons. First there’s so many great teams who have won this in the past. “But also if there’s one thing we’ve all bought into it is the idea the team is more important that the individual. It’s the real basis of why we’ve done well and makes it even more special to win this accolade.”

Strauss was also on the shortlist for the Sports Personality of the Year award which went to cyclist Mark Cavendish. The winner of the award was decided by a panel of sports editors from national and regional newspapers and magazines.