 Panesar and Collingwood are essential components for England |
Despite a difficult 2006 for the England team, the pair impressed in both Test and one-day cricket.
The others recognised are prolific Surrey batsman Mark Ramprakash, Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene and Pakistan's Mohammad Yousuf.
Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was named Leading Cricketer in the World, won by Andrew Flintoff in 2006.
The awards are a feature of the annual Wisden Almanack, which is now in its 144th year and players can only be nominated among the Five Cricketers of the Year once in their careers, although the same criteria does not apply to the Leading Cricketer, an honour which was only introduced in 2004.
Panesar has been a revelation since dismissing Sachin Tendulkar on his Test debut against India in March last year.
He then took five-wicket hauls against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, and after being controversially left out of the opening two Ashes Tests, returned to claim 5-92 in Perth.
The 24-year-old has also confounded critics by claiming a place in England's one-day team, with a best so far of 2-35 against New Zealand.
Collingwood was regarded purely as a one-day player before the tour of Pakistan at the end of 2005.
He scored 96 and 80 in the final match of that ill-fated campaign, and duly recorded his maiden Test century with an unbeaten 134 in the opening match of the series in India.
To confirm his presence in the Test team, he made 186 in the home series against Pakistan, followed by 96 and 206 in Australia.
After a brief dip in form, he compiled successive centuries as England came back from the abyss to capture the CB one-day series down under.
Ramprakash, now 37, played the last of his 52 Tests in New Zealand in 2002 but international recalls were mentioned when he made eight Championship centuries in amassing 2,211 runs for Surrey last term.
One of the reasons England needed him last summer was that they had failed to beat Sri Lanka in the Test series and then been whitewashed 5-0 in the one-day matches.
Jayawardene had taken over the captaincy from Marvan Atapattu and responded with a century against England and two more in the home series against South Africa, including an epic 374 in Colombo.
In that one-day series domination against England he made 66 at The Oval, followed by successive centuries.
But that appears almost sketchy compared to Yousuf, who began an incredible run of form in the final Test against England in December 2005, scoring 223 in Lahore.
He followed that with two centuries and two fifties in his next five innings against India, before punishing England again on Pakistan's tour last summer.
The stylish right-hander scored a magnificent 202 at Lord's, and added two more sizeable centuries in that series.
In five innings against West Indies he was even more destructive, with four centuries and a lowest score of 56.
The remarkable spin wizard Murali is closing in on 700 Test wickets after another productive year.
In the calendar year 2006 he captured 90 Test victims, with 22 in two matches against South Africa.
He has well over 400 ODI scalps, and took 4-23 in the Champions Trophy against New Zealand.
"Muralitharan is a truly great cricketer," Wisden's Simon Barnes commented. "Those that cannot go along with such a sentiment have something lacking in their souls. The spirit of cricket, perhaps."
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