My wife rarely watches a cricket match on television but loves the Allan Border awards presentation to gaze at what the cricketers’ wives and girl friends are wearing.
It’s as much a night of glam and gloss as of stats and fab performances of the year from February to February.
Who will be the winners on Monday night, climaxed by wearing the Allan Border Medal? A real challenge!
To quote Denzil Batchelor, “To write about cricket you need the pinpointing accuracy of a map-maker, the prophetic gift of Nostradamus, the forthrightness of Hazlitt, the lapidary Roman quality and the profound imagery of Sir Thomas Browne, the energy and skill in manoeuvre of a polo player and the patience in affliction of Job himself.”
Batchelor must have the prediction of the winners at the Allan Border Night in mind when he penned the above decades ago, much before the awards were introduced in 2000.
Glenn McGrath won the inaugural Allan Border Medal as also the Test Player of the Year award. Shane Warne was the first One Day International (ODI) winner.
Nicknamed Nastradamus by the late Vinay Verma of The Roar fame, I predict Michael ‘Pup’ Clarke to wear the double crown; the AB Medal and the Test Cricketer of the Year award on Monday night.
Well, Peter Siddle with 40 wickets could challenge him for the Test Cricketer of the Year category but my money is on Pup, who has amassed 1167 runs at 68.67 in 11 Tests with five centuries including a triple and a double hundred in successive Tests last month. And he has led Australia with success.
Either Shane Watson, Clarke or Mitchell Johnson could be the ODI Player of the Year. Although it was against Bangladesh, Watson’s 185 not out at Mirpur was spectacular, especially his 15 sixes, the most sixes in an ODI.
Either Victoria’s Robert Quiney (1640 runs at 44.32 enriched with four centuries and a strike rate of 74.44) and Tasmania’s James Faulkner with 71 wickets at 24.62 will be my nomination for the Domestic Player of the Year award.
The dark horse could be Alister McDermott with his bowling average of 21.05 in this period and his 7 for 24 for Queensland against Western Australia a fortnight ago.
NSW’s power-hitter David Warner, the Test discovery of the season, is my nominee for the Young (under 24 years) Cricketer of the Year award.
By scoring 1587 runs in 21 matches at 69.00, he is 616 runs ahead of Victoria’s Glenn Maxwell (average 44.14). Once again the red-head Alister, the son of Craig, could be the dark horse with his 7-24 against WA.
It is harder to pick the winner in women’s cricket. Will all-rounder Shelly Nitschke receive the award for the fourth time in a row, having won it in 2009, 2010 and 2011?
Although she scored 285 runs and took 21 wickets and 3 catches, Lisa Sthalekar has more impressive figures in the same February 2011 to 2012 period, 285 runs and 30 wickets. Not to forget Alex Blackwell and Leah Poulton who scored 464 runs each.
But Sthalekar, the winner in 2007 and 2008 is my choice. If Nitsschke wins, she will join former great Karen Rolton who wore the Award four times — in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006.
Finally to the Hall of Fame inductees: Honouring the legends of Australian cricket started in 1996 when Jack Blackham, Fred Spofforth, Vic Trumper, Clarrie Grimmett, Bill Ponsford, Don Bradman, Bill O’Reilly, Keith Miller, Ray Lindwall and Dennis Lillee were inducted.
Then it continued in 2000. The greats of the game inducted from 2000 to 2010 are: Warwick Armstrong, Neil Harvey, Allan Border; Bill Woodfull, Arthur Morris; Greg Chappell, Stan McCabe; Ian Chappell, Lindsay Hassett; Hugh Trumble, Alan Davidson; Clem Hill, Rod Marsh; Bob Simpson, Monty Noble; Charlie Macartney, Richie Benaud; George Giffen, Ian Healy; Steve Waugh; Bill Lawry and ‘Garth’ McKenzie.
Last year Doug Walters and Mark Taylor were inducted in the Hall of Fame.
Who will be inducted this year? As the criterion is that the players must have retired six years ago, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden may not qualify this year.
But I predict it could be two among the following: Charles Bannerman, Jack Gregory, Sid Barnes, Don Tallon, Colin McDonald, Norm O’Neill, Jeff Thomson, Mark Waugh, David Boon, Brian Booth, Ashley Mallett, Michael Slater.
Featuring Aussie cricket star Usman Khawaja and taking inspiration from multiple horror films, Amazon Prime's promo for the 2024 T20 World Cup has certainly…
After a career that has spanned more than two decades, James Anderson leaves cricket as a legend of the game, up there with the…
Calvin Harrison mixed things up in his delivery stride starting behind the-non-striker, then going between the umpire and the stumps to deliver the ball…
Backing up too far, the Dehli Capitals batsman was caught out of his crease when Shai Hope hit the ball to the bowler who…
After some mid-over words between the Indian teammates as Kohli belted Shama for 10 runs in two balls, the bowler had the last laugh…
The TV Umpire ruled that the batsman deliberately changed his line to block the throw at the stumps.
