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After a banner year crowned by their highest Test scores, Steve Smith and Ellyse Perry are firm favourites for Australian cricket’s top individual awards.
Smith should win his second Allan Border Medal on Monday night in Melbourne with Perty set to claim her second Belinda Clark Award.
The Australian Test and one-day captain enjoyed career-best form in the voting period for the Border Medal, from January 8 last year to January 8 this year.
Smith topped the run aggregate for Australians across the three international formats, but his Test form was the most impressive – 1305 runs in 11 matches at an average of 81.56, with six centuries.
The highlight was his career-best 239 in the third Ashes Test last December in Perth, which Australia won on the way to their 4-0 series triumph.
No player has won the Border Medal three years in a row and Smith’s imperious form means that trend is set to continue.
After Smith won in 2015, his vice-captain David Warner has won the last two.
Warner should win the international one-day cricketer award for the second straight year, but Smith scored a whopping 420 more Test runs than his opener.
If Smith is to be threatened for the Test player award it will come from offspinner Nathan Lyon, who took 62 wickets in the voting period.
Lyon was the most prolific Test wicket taker in world cricket during the voting period.
But he did not play in the other international formats.
Perry won her first Belinda Clark Award two years ago and looks unstoppable for the second, despite solid claims from batter Beth Mooney and bowler Megan Schutt.
Perry’s unbeaten 213 against England in November is the third-highest women’s Test score and broke the Australian record.
Apart from topping the Australian international batting with 756 runs at 68.73, the fast-medium bowler was also third with the ball, snaring 20 wickets at 32.10.
Monday night’s black tie function will also feature the men’s international T20 player of the year, the top men’s and women’s domestic players and the Bradman and Betty Wilson awards for the young players of the year.
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