Smith wins fourth AB Medal, Aussie star snubbed despite being ICC nominee, Mooney shines in stellar year

Steve Smith and Beth Mooney have been named Australia’s men’s and women’s cricketers of the year at the Australian Cricket Awards.

Smith collected his fourth Allan Border Medal, presented to the best male cricketer, on Monday night to join Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke in winning the award four times.

After 3-2-1 votes from players, umpires and media were tallied, Smith (171 votes) comfortably beat out second-placed Travis Head (144) and David Warner (141) in third.

Despite falling out of favour in the T20I set-up, Smith sealed the medal with a tally of 1547 runs this season across all formats at an average of 55.3.

Steve Smith and Beth Mooney. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)

Smith reaped the rewards of a year-long process to revamp his batting technique and at the beginning of the home summer, said he felt the most comfortable at the crease that he had in six years.

He went on to make an unbeaten 200 runs against West Indies, his highest Test score since 2019, and backed it up with 104 runs in his home Test at the SCG against South Africa. At Test level, Smith has averaged 71.92 in the past 12 months.

For the second time, Mooney received the Belinda Clark Award as Australia’s best female cricketer after polling 129 votes.

Meg Lanning finished second in the tally with 110 votes, despite an extended leave of absence, and allrounder Tahlia McGrath placed third with 95.

Averaging 100.75 across 10 ODIs last year, Mooney was a crucial member of Australia’s gold medal-winning Commonwealth Games campaign and their triumph at the ODI World Cup campaign, where she was named in the team of the tournament.

Mooney was also named Women’s ODI Player Of The Year and in her most recent ODI, posted a career-high 133 runs to help Australia complete a clean sweep of the home series against Pakistan.

As part of the ceremony at Royal Randwick Racecourse, Test revenant Usman Khawaja was named the inaugural Shane Warne Men’s Test Player Of The Year for his consistency with the bat locally and abroad.

After breaking back into the side last summer, Khawaja cemented his spot in the Australian team as the most impressive batter on the Test tour of Pakistan. He set a new personal best in his most recent Test, managing an unbeaten 195 against South Africa at the SCG.

David Warner was named the ODI Player Of The Year, with Adam Zampa overlooked for nomination despite being selected in the ICC’s ODI Team Of The Year.

Last year, no man playing for a full-member nation of the ICC took more ODI wickets than Zampa, who is Australia’s first-choice spinner in white-ball fixtures and managed 30 scalps at 17.53 from 12 matches.

Against New Zealand in September, Zampa took 5-35 – his best performance from 76 ODIs – and has never before taken more than 30 wickets in a calendar year at ODI level.

The 30-year-old legspinner was named in the ICC’s 2022 ODI team of the year and was one of four players shortlisted for the ICC’s male ODI player of the year. He ultimately lost out to Pakistan’s Babar Azam.

Zampa’s effort was all the more impressive given he travelled to the spin-friendly subcontinent only once last year.

He is currently playing for the Dubai Capitals in the UAE T20 League so missed the awards ceremony at Royal Randwick Racecourse.

Warner scored more runs than any Australian batter (552) in ODIs last year but admitted he was surprised to have won the award. He averaged 42.46 runs across his 13 ODI innings, with a high score of 106 in his most recent match against England in November.

Like the other international awards presented by Cricket Australia, the men’s ODI award is determined by tallying 3-2-1 votes from players, umpires and media.

Warner and Steve Smith both finished atop the polls with 25 votes each but because Warner finished with more allocations of three votes, he received the award.

Batter Travis Head finished third on 24 votes after returning to the ODI side from a three-and-a-half year absence.

CRICKET AUSTRALIA AWARDS WINNERS

Belinda Clark Award – Beth Mooney (129 votes)
2nd : Meg Lanning (110 votes)
3rd : Tahlia McGrath (95 votes)

Allan Border Medal – Steve Smith (171 votes)
Travis Head (144 votes)
David Warner (141 votes)

Women’s ODI Player of the Year – Beth Mooney
Women’s T20I Player of the Year – Tahlia McGrath
Shane Warne Men’s Test Player of the Year – Usman Khawaja
Men’s ODI Player of the Year – David Warner
Men’s T20I Player of the Year – Marcus Stoinis
Women’s Domestic Player of the Year – Annabel Sutherland
Men’s Domestic Player of the Year – Michael Neser

Betty Wilson Young Cricketer of the Year – Courtney Seppel
Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year – Lance Morris
Community Champion Award – Usman Khawaja
Woolworths Cricket Blaster of the Year – Mabel Tovey
Australian Cricket Hall of Fame inductees – Marg Jennings and Ian Redpath.

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