On Saturday, Cricket Australia (CA) announced Australian Cricket Awards winners for 2021. Unlike the previous times, this year’s awards were announced during a televised show due to biosecurity protocols and other challenges in the current atmosphere.
Steve Smith won the prestigious Allan Border Medal – the award presented to Australia’s men’s cricketer of the year. Smith has won his third Allan Border Medal. He is now only behind Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke, who have won the concerned medal four times each. Smith also grabbed the Male ODI Player of the year award.
Similarly, Aussie women cricket superstar Beth Mooney earned the Belinda Clark Award – the prize given to Australia’s best women’s cricketer of the year. Mooney won the Female T20I Player of the award as well.
The Allan Border (AB) Medal is named after former Australian men’s captain Allan Border and was first awarded in 2000 to Glenn McGrath. Likewise, the Belinda Clark award was named after former Australian women cricketer Belinda Clark – first-ever batter to score a double century in a women’s One Day Internationals. The first women cricketer to be facilitated by this award was Karen Rolton in 2002.
Presenting the 2020-21 Allan Border and Belinda Clark Medallists, Steve Smith and Beth Mooney! 👏 #AusCricketAwards pic.twitter.com/Ybl8VfYZfq
— Cricket Australia (@CricketAus) February 6, 2021
Smith was surprised after being honoured with AB medal. He opined that his lack of impact in the Border-Gavaskar series against India would crush the chances of winning the award.
“I didn’t expect it; I thought Marnus (Labuschagne) or Pat Cummins were the front runners because they both had exceptional years. I didn’t feel I had the biggest Test summer, which normally holds the most votes. I think my one-day cricket was pretty good last summer,” said Smith as quoted by Cricketcomau.
“I’m just really honoured to have won my third AB Medal and hopefully I can keep producing results for Australia,” he added.
