Mitchell Marsh celebrated as top of Australian cricket with Allan Border Medal, Ash Gardiner wins Belinda Clark award
He’s gone from one of the most hated men in Aussie cricket to top of the world in the space of 12 months, with an Allan Border Medal crowning Mitchell Marsh’s redemption arc.
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An emotional Mitch Marsh thanked his wife for changing his perspective on life and his captain Pat Cummins for believing in him even though he gets “a bit fat at times and I love a beer” as he completed his career resurgence by claiming the Allan Border medal.
Marsh, who once thought Australia hated him, said his name “looks weird” on a list littered with the greatest players of the past 20 years but after a stunning 12 months across all formats he couldn’t be denied a win for the good guys.
The man dubbed “the Bison” cantered to victory in the most prestigious individual award in Australian cricket.
On the back of 1638 runs across Tests, ODIs and T20s, including a breakthrough and unforgettable Ashes century in Leeds and an even more brilliant unbeaten 177 against Bangladesh at the World Cup, Marsh was crowned Australia’s best player over the past 12 months.
The 32-year-old polled 223 votes, a whopping 79 ahead of Test captain Pat Cummins (144) and Steve Smith (141), evidence of a stunning year in red and white-ball cricket in a voting period during which 37 players played for Australia.
In one of the great all-time acceptance speeches Marsh was unwavering in his thanks to his wife of eight months, Greta, and Cummins and coach Andrew McDonald for “believing in me”.
“Grets is an amazing human, I said in my wedding vows eight months ago, she gave me the perspective on life I needed and our life is a lot of fun. If I get a duck, or get a hundred, she’s always the same,” Marsh said.
“To Ronny (McDonald) and Patty (Cummins) you believed in me and I can’t thank you enough.
“I’m a bit fat at times and I love a beer but you see the best in me always. You’ve changed my life.
“This is a huge honour. I’ll see you all on the dance floor.”
"I'm a bit fat at times and I love a beer..."
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 31, 2024
Mitch Marsh's acceptance speech had it all! #AusCricketAwardspic.twitter.com/E98c88wU4j
Marsh capped a stellar night by also taking out the ODI player of the year award, an achievement enhanced as it comes in the wake of Australia’s stunning World Cup victory over India.
In and out of the Test team since his debut a decade ago against Pakistan in Dubai in 2014, Marsh only returned to the XI, after a four year absence during the 2023 Ashes, replacing Cameron Green.
He made an immediate impact blasting 118 in his first innings back, off 120 balls, and now remains part of a locked-in top six backed by selectors to take the Test team forward, with Green only getting back into the team after David Warner’s retirement.
Marsh was set for a pay rise of between $500,000 and $800,000 when new contracts are confirmed in coming months as a key part of all three Australian teams, a figure which could now rise.
He captained Australia’s ODI side in South Africa and is also the man most likely to lead Australia at the T20 World Cup being held in the West Indies and USA in July, taking charge of the upcoming series against the West Indies.
Marsh, regarded by his teammates as the ultimate tourist, said he didn’t think he was a chance of winning, until his teammates suggested he was.
“I really hadn’t thought about it until a few of the boys started getting stuck in to me, I started to think I was a chance,” he said.
“I had four beers at lunch so I had to stop there. Now I’m hoping it’s not live Covid and we look back in three years and think ‘that was a weird time’. It’s a huge honour.”
It’s a mark of how far Marsh has come from being the one-time whipping boy of Australian cricket who felt unloved in 2019 as part of that Ashes squad.
“Yeah, most of Australia hate me,” Marsh said at the time, feeling the burden of being what many cricket fans thought was an unfulfilled talent who had been given more opportunities than he deserved.
Since then Marsh was man of the match in Australia’s brilliant T20 World Cup win in 2021, has become a Test lock and topped the scoring for his team with 344 runs in the 3-0 series win over Pakistan.
It was that performance which moved Cummins to declare Marsh was “thriving” as an international cricketer.
“He is thriving. He is just showing how good he is,” Cummins said.
Marsh joins an elite list of only 15 previous winners of the medal, a list that includes the best players of the past two decades, including Cummins, Steve Smith, a four-time winner as well as cricket greats Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh and the inaugural winner, Glenn McGrath.
LYON KING: KHAWAJA MISSES OUT ON NATIONAL GONG AFTER ICC WIN
Making more Test runs than anyone on the planet in the past 12 months wasn’t enough to secure star opener Usman Khawaja back-to-back player of the year honours on Wednesday night.
Instead superstar spinner Nathan Lyon was rewarded for pushing in to cricket’s elite 500-club and added a second Shane Warne Test player of the year award to his list of career accomplishments.
Lyon, who turned 36 in November, was Australia’s leading wicket-taker across the voting period, picking up 49 scalps, playing all but three matches having been forced out of the Ashes early by a calf injury.
His haul was five-wickets more than the next best bowler, Pat Cummins, who took 44, and included a best return of 8-64 against India in Indore in March.
Lyon also moved in to the top-1o all-time Test wicket takers during 2023, claiming his 500th against Pakistan in Perth, becoming only the third Australian bowler to reach the milestone.
Khawaja, who was recognised as the ICC Test player of the year, finished third in voting after scoring 1062 runs with six fifties and two hundreds from his 13 matches.
Steve Smith was second in what was a tight count.
West Australian fast-bowler Jason Behrendorff was a surprise winner of the T20 player of the year, securing the award in a lean year for matches in the 20-over format.
Behrendorff was one of 20 players who wore the green and gold in matches through the voting period, and his eight wickets was enough to secure a second CA award, having been named domestic player of the year in 2015.
That award went to former Test opener Cameron Bancroft, who was overlooked by selectors as a replacement for David Warner in the Test team.
Bancroft scored a mammoth 1636 runs with 12 fifties and three hundreds during the voting period, having topped the Sheffield Shield run-scoring list last season, and leading it this season.
Matt Short, who was named the BBL player of the year, was the second-leading domestic run-scorer over the period, and only he and Bancroft averaged over 50.
GARDNER DEFIES PERRY TO WIN HIGHEST HONOUR
Australian all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner had a stellar 2023 which has been rewarded with a second Belinda Clark medal.
Star all-rounder Ash Gardner defied an white-ball push from gun veteran Ellyse Perry to secure a second Belinda Clark award as the best all-format Australian player over the past 12 months.
It’s the second-time in the past three years Gardner has won the award in a narrow victory over Perry who won both the ODI and T20 player of the year gongs at the Cricket Australia awards in Melbourne on Wednesday night.
Gardner, who secured a record $556,00 payday in the inaugural auction for the Women’s Premier League in India last year as recognition of her star qualities, captured 147 votes, to win by 13 from Perry (134) and young gun Annabel Sutherland (106) coming third.
During 12-month period in which Australia won the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa, retained the Ashes and won ODI and T20I series in India, Gardner starred while also being champion of Indigenous culture and outspoken around playing cricket on January 26.
Her 12 wicket haul against England in the one-of Test at Trent Bridge, including matchwinning figures of 8-66 in the second innings, was a standout performance and one which ultimately elevated her above her teammates, with voting graded-up for Tests.
She was named in both the ICC ODI and T20I Teams of the Year, scoring 499 runs at 24.94 with a top score of 65 and took 56 wickets at 19.39 with best figures of 8-66 across all formats.
Despite missing out on the main award, the achievements of 33-year-0old Perry were even more remarkable.
She too was named in the ICC ODI and T20 teams and secured the Australian awards in the same formats for the first time.
Ellyse Perry of Australia plays a shot during game two of the women’s T20I series between India and Australia at DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai.
Showing zero signs that the abilities of a player who made her international debut as a 17-year-old in 2007 were on the decline in any way, Perry scored 466 ODI runs at 66.57 and 390 T20 runs at 43.33.
Perry managed to outdo batting phenom Phoebe Litchfield in voting for the ODI, with the 20-year-old tyro having made a brilliant start to her international career, scoring her first century against Ireland in July and finished the year with a record-breaking series against India which saw her score 78, 63 and 119.
Litchfield and Sutherland, were the only Australians to score a century in any format during the voting period, both scoring two, while Perry made 99 in the Test against England in Nottingham.
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