Mushtaq Ahmed has been named Player of the Year by the Professional Cricketers Association.

The award tops a superb season for the Pakistani leg-spinner, who was the first bowler since 1998 to take more than 100 County Championship wickets.

His contribution was crucial as Sussex clinched the title for the first time in their 164-year history.

Previous winners include Sir Richard Hadlee, Malcolm Marshall, Brian Lara, Mike Procter and, last year, Michael Vaughan.

Alex Stewart received a lifetime achievement award from his fellow players at the dinner in London.

Stewart, 40, retired on a winning note earlier this month when England claimed victory in the fifth and final Test of the summer to square the series against South Africa at 2-2.

That was Surrey wicketkeeper-batsman Stewart's 133rd Test in a 14-year international career which included more than 8,000 runs and 15 centuries at Test level, and no player had won more caps for England.

Stewart believes that his career total of 133 Test appearances and 170 one-day caps will be broken in the future.

"All records are there to be broken and with the amount of international cricket the lads now have to play, I can see people breaking them in eight or nine years as long as they have the desire to play the game," said Stewart.