London Graeme Swann, banished to the county wilderness after a chastening first senior tour 10 years ago, completed his remarkable journey to the top when he was last night named England's Player of the Year.

Swann, who only made his Test debut in Chennai late in 2008, took the award ahead of Stuart Broad, Andrew Strauss, Paul Collingwood and Jimmy Anderson after a year in which he took 99 wickets for England in 45 games across all formats.

"It has been a magical year for me with so many high points," said Swann, 31.

"I know I've had a decent year but when you look at how well some of our players have done, you have to take a step back to realise how good a year it's been for me."

His rise has been meteoric, not least his habit of taking a wicket in his first over virtually every time he bowls.

"If you'd told me this three years ago I'd have said, ‘no chance'," said Swann.

"I'm just enjoying every game, going in thinking, ‘This is going to be brilliant fun, doing the job I always dreamed of but that almost never happened'."

Celebratory mood

There was a celebratory mood at last night's Brit-sponsored presentation dinner in the Long room at Lord's after a year in which England regained the Ashes and last week added their first global title by winning the world Twenty20 in Barbados.

Swann has been pivotal to those triumphs and occupies No 3 in the ICC bowler rankings having been at No 2 after he won Man of the Series awards on England's tours of South Africa and Bangladesh. What is more, he has done it with conventional off-spin, a skill that was dying out before Swann led its comeback.

His award came at the end of a day of recognition for England, who attended a Downing Street reception with Prime Minister David Cameron, a less raucous affair than that in 2005 which came after England won the Ashes.

"I now expect the ticker-tape parade and meeting the Prime Minister," said a smiling Swann, the joker in England's pack.

"I'm still waiting for my audience with the Queen! I've driven past Downing Street before but never been inside. It's nice to get in there and pick up some design tips."

Katherine Brunt, the fast bowler who starred in England's world Twenty20 success last year, won the Women's Player of the Year award.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hassan has said he hopes the decision to rest Collingwood and Broad from the two-Test series starting at Lord's tomorrow will work in his side's favour as the tourists seek to avoid defeat for the first time in seven Tests against England.

Al Hassan told the Daily Mail: "Broad can be very effective in these conditions and Collingwood has all the experience. We wanted to play against a full-strength team, but if they are taking us lightly it will be a big advantage for us."

The Bangladeshis took heart from extending Alastair Cook's team to the fifth day at Chittagong and Dhaka in March and Al Hassan who will join up with Worcestershire from mid-July thinks his side are improving.