Tonight Australia’s best individual cricketers will be crowned at the Australian Cricket Awards – the code’s glamorous showpiece awards ceremony.
Headlining the night are the Allan Border Medal and Belinda Clark Award, respectively awarded to Australia’s most outstanding male and female cricketer from the past year.
The ceremony, which takes place at Melbourne’s Crown Casino, will see a whopping 12 awards handed out in total.
Both men’s and women’s cricket have individual awards for the best Test, ODI and T20I players of the year.
There is also a BBL Player of the Tournament, men’s and women’s domestic cricketer of the year awards, as well as male and female Young Cricketers of the Year awards.
Steve Smith is the reigning recipient of the Allan Border Medal – his fourth time winning the award, while Beth Mooney holds the Belinda Clark Medal.
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Mitch Marsh is the favourite to win the Allan Border Medal this time around, thanks to his performances across all three formats.
Votes are weighted in the race for the Allan Border Medal – with votes from Test matches worth twice as much as ODI fixtures, and three times T20I votes. Votes are cast after each game on a 3-2-1 system, voted upon by teammates, match referees or umpires, and members of the media.
But Pat Cummins, named the ICC Cricketer of the Year for 2023, will also fancy his chances of a second AB Medal, while Usman Khawaja was the ICC’s Test Cricketer of the Year.
Adam Gilchrist believes it’ll be hard to pick a winner out of that trio.
“I think it’s a hard one,” Gilchrist said on SEN WA Breakfast.
“I mean, Pat Cummins was the Men’s International Cricketer of the Year and Usman Khawaja was the Test cricketer of the Year globally.
“Votes are heavily weighted to Test matches in the voting system in the Allan Border medal.
“But then Mitch had sprinklings of magic in Test cricket and some real dominance at times in the One Day game.
“Glenn Maxwell had some little cameos here and there and well, a particularly big cameo in the World Cup a couple of times.”
But he added that Travis Head is a sneaky chance to stun them all.
Meanwhile Ellyse Perry (already a three-time winner) and Ash Gardner are among a stacked list of genuine contenders for Belinda Clark Medal, with a long line of players enjoying exceptional years.
The awards for all international formats, male and female, covers the period of matches from 22 January 2023 to 9 January 2024 – before the two West Indies matches.
HOW TO WATCH
The Australian Cricket Awards ceremony will be televised on Fox Cricket (Ch. 501) and can be streamed on KAYO from 7pm AEDT.
We’ll have all the action covered in a live blog right here, so check back!