Beth Mooney, Steve Smith claim top honours at Australian Cricket Awards
S
teve Smith joined Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke as four-times winners of the Allan Border Medal, while Beth Mooney won her second Belinda Clark Award at the 2023 Australian Cricket Awards.
"The top prizes were a repeat of the 2021 awards when Smith and Mooney took out the top prizes. The ceremony, at Sydney's Randwick Racecourse, was the first time Australia's elite male and female cricketers had gathered together for the awards in three years.
The awards also included two inductions to the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, with Ian Redpath and Margaret Jennings in the class of 2023.
After receiving 171 votes to easily earn his fourth Allan Border Medal, Steve Smith won the highest individual award given to an Australian male cricketer. Travis Head (144 votes), David Warner (141), Marnus Labuschagne, and Usman Khawaja round out the top five, finishing much behind Smith.
The 33-year-old Smith is the only four-time winner of the trophy, joining Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting. He also won it in 2015, 2018 and 2021. Since the AB Medal's inception in 2000, no one has ever won five of them.
Ahead of a busy domestic summer that included three different ODI series, a T20 World Cup on home soil, and Tests against the West Indies and South Africa, the star batter participated in tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka and played in 10 Tests, 17 ODIs, and 20 T20 internationals during the voting period.
During the voting period, Smith collected 1,524 runs across the formats and recorded Test centuries against Sri Lanka (145 in Galle), the West Indies (200 in Perth), and South Africa (104 in Sydney).
Beth Mooney emphasised her status with a second Belinda Clark Award after already winning the women's ODI cricketer of the year honour.
Mooney, who won in 2021 as well, had 129 votes, beating out captain Meg Lanning (110 votes) and all-around player Tahlia McGrath (95 votes).
Mooney amassed 1,109 runs at 69.31, more than any other Australian woman in all formats during the voting period, ahead of Lanning (991 runs at 55.05) and Alyssa Healy (771 at 32.15).
The voting period took in last January's multi-format Ashes, the 50-over World Cup in New Zealand, the T20 tri-series against Ireland and Pakistan, the Commonwealth Games, December's T20I tour of India and the ODI leg of this month's series against Pakistan.
✔️ Beth Mooney, Steve Smith claim top honours at Australian Cricket Awards
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