Steve Smith

Smith and Mooney crowned Australia's players of the year

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Steve Smith and Beth Mooney have taken out the top gongs at this year’s Australian Cricket Awards, being recognised by their peers, match officials and the media for a stellar 12 months in the game.

Smith edged out Pat Cummins to win the Allan Border Medal, the award presented to Australia’s men’s cricketer of the year.

The batting superstar picked up 126 votes in the voting period (January 9, 2020 to January 19, 2021), 12 more than Cummins’ 114 votes.

It is the third time he has won the Allan Border Medal. Only Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke – four times each – have won it more times.

Smith scored 1098 runs at 45.75 across all formats in the voting period, the most runs of any Australian player. It was in one-day internationals that he scored the bulk of his runs, tallying 568 at 63.11 to also be voted Australia’s men’s ODI player of the year.

Cummins, who took 21 wickets at 20.04 in the Border-Gavaskar series – the only four Tests played in the voting period – was voted Test player of the year.

Beth Mooney  scraped past captain Meg Lanning to win the Belinda Clark Award
Beth Mooney scraped past captain Meg Lanning to win the Belinda Clark Award

Mooney scraped past captain Meg Lanning to win the Belinda Clark Award, the prize given to Australia’s best women’s cricketer of the year.

She scored 555 runs at 42.69 across all formats in the voting period and picked up 60 votes. That was two more votes than Lanning, who scored 442 runs at 49.11.

Mooney was the team’s dominant batter in T20Is in the voting period, scoring 504 runs at 45.81, including six fifties and was duly named Australia’s women’s T20I player of the year.

She was the top run-scorer in the the Women's T20 World Cup 2020, scoring 259 runs at 64.75, including an unbeaten 78 in Australia's victory over India in the final.

Ashton Agar was crowned Australia’s Men’s T20I player of the year.

Ashton Agar won the Men's T20I Player of the Year award
Ashton Agar won the Men's T20I Player of the Year award

Mooney is the first player other than Ellyse Perry, Meg Lanning and Alyssa Healy to win the Belinda Clark Award since 2013.

Rachael Haynes was named Australia’s women’s ODI player of the year, after scoring 222 runs at an average of 74 in the voting period.

On Friday, Shaun Marsh and Elyse Villani were named Australia’s domestic players of the year, and Will Sutherland and Hannah Darlington were announced as the Don Bradman and Belly Wilson young cricketers of the year.

This summer also saw all three of Johnny Mullagh, Merv Hughes and Lisa Sthalekar inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.

2021 Australian Cricket Awards recipients

Allan Border Medal – Steve Smith
Belinda Clark Award – Beth Mooney
Men’s Test Player of the Year – Pat Cummins
Men’s ODI Player of the Year – Steve Smith
Men’s T20I Player of the Year – Ashton Agar
Women’s ODI Player of the Year – Rachael Haynes
Women's T20I Player of the Year - Beth Mooney
Community Impact Award – Josh Lalor
Men’s Domestic Player of the Year – Shaun Marsh
Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year – Will Sutherland
Women’s Domestic Player of the Year – Elyse Villani
Betty Wilson Young Cricketer of the Year – Hannah Darlington
Australian Cricket Hall of Fame – Johnny Mullagh, Merv Hughes and Lisa Sthalekar

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