LONDON, Sept 24: England opener Michael Vaughan has been voted player of the year by the Professional Cricketers’ Association.

The Yorkshire batsman emerged as England’s outstanding batsman during the summer when he plundered four Test centuries against Sri Lanka and India.

Vaughan had a phenomenal season with the bat. In all first-class cricket he made 976 runs from just 15 innings at 75.07.

His highest score of the season was 197, made in the second Test at Trent Bridge against India.

In the first Test series of the summer against Sri Lanka, which England won 2-0, Vaughan starred making 285 runs at an average of 71.25.

Vaughan had an even better series against India averaging 102.50. He made an aggregate of 615 runs.

Vaughan was one of five nominations for the award, the others being fellow England players Nick Knight, Ronnie Irani and Matthew Hoggard and Northamptonshire’s Australian batsman Michael Hussey.

Worcestershire’s Kabir Ali won the PCA Young Player of the Year award. The other nominations were Jim Troughton (Warwickshire), Rikki Clarke (Surrey), James Anderson (Lancashire) and Gordon Muchall (Durham).—AFP