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It’s the night of nights for Australian cricket as the countries finest get set for the bat and ball Oscars, the 2017 Allan Border Medal. Follow all the live coverage of the night on The Roar from 7:30pm (AEDT) for all the award results and updates.
The awards this year, across all categories, are expected to be as tight as ever following an undulating year of form for the Australian cricket team.
The voting period ran from the eighth of January 2016 to the seventh of January this year.
In terms of the voting system, Test match votes are worth twice as many as ODI votes and three times as much as T20 votes.
The weighting system tries to accommodate players who only play long-form cricket, but does open up big points for those who play all three formats.
David Warner was the surprise winner of last year’s Allan Border Medal, beating out skipper Steve Smith who was the hot favourite leading into the awards.
Smith again has his name firmly in the hat for the 2017 awards, having been the leading run scorer in Tests over the voting period, but he again has Warner to deal with.
Warner had a year to remember in the 50-over game, comfortably leading the run-scorers list in ODI cricket with seven centuries inside the voting period. While not his best year in Test cricket, he was still consistent enough to pick up enough votes to become overall favourite for the AB medal.
Last year’s ODI player of the year, Glenn Maxwell, is highly unlikely to retain that crown, but is favourite to take out the T20 player of the year. Despite the award not being given last year due to a lack of T20 games, Maxwell does hold the gong from 2015.
Mitch Starc will be the pick of the bowlers for the top prize on the night. He picked up 52 wickets to sit atop those standings during the last 12 months, making him one to keep an eye on.
Adam Voges was put in the ICC Test team of the year recently, but is unlikely to feature too prominently tonight, having missed a big chunk of the voting period at the back end of 2016.
Predictions
Judging off stats alone, it looks like it could be another big year for Warner who is a shoe-in for the ODI player of the year.
Smith has arguably been the best Test player through the period and will likely take that gong, but Starc will be a stern match-up for the Aussie captain and could be the first bowler to win it in nine years.
The T20 player of the year could be a bit closer with Maxwell the favourite, but Shane Watson and Aaron Finch have the potential to sneak their way in there.
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