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NEWS Monty Panesar wins Beard of the Year award 29th Dec 2006  14.04 IST By Agencies   England may have lost the Ashes battle to archenemy Australia but Monty Panesar has a reason to celebrate. The left-arm spinner edged out ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Archbishop of Canterbury and Inzamam-ul-Haq , among others, to win the “Beard of the Year 2006” award. The Beard Liberation Front (BLF), an informal network of beard wearers, said in a press release in London that Panesar has finished on top, narrowly beating Castro. Panesar, first Sikh player to don England jersey, has been a front-runner for the award right from the beginning and BLF organiser Keith Flett told BBC Radio Northampton that it was a combination of facial hair and on-field heroics which tilted the scale in the spinner's favour. “He may have a beard for slightly different reasons, but at the end of the day it's still a beard, and it's a magnificent beard. Obviously it's his bowling, but I think his beard may well play a role there. The Aussie batsmen are probably a bit bamboozled as they see the beard coming towards them and, you know, that's it - off they go back to the pavilion,” Flett reasoned. The “Beard of the Year” award is a prize awarded in December of each year in the United Kingdom by the BLF to acknowledge someone in the public eye who has created positive publicity for the wearing of beards. Also View Team Page: England Team Page: Australia

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