It was Smith’s third Allan Border Medal having won the coveted prize in 2015 and 2018.
Smith pipped speedster Pat Cummins to win the prestigious award – presented to Australia’s men’s cricketer of the year. The batting superstar picked up 126 votes during the polling period which is 12 more than Cummins’ 114 votes.
It was Smith’s third Allan Border Medal having won the coveted prize in 2015 and 2018. Only Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke – four times each – have clinched it more times.
During the voting period from January 9, 2020 to January 19, 2021, Smith amassed 1098 runs at 45.75 across all formats, the most by an Australian player. It was in the 50-over format that he scored the bulk of his runs, aggregating 568 at 63.11 to also be voted Australia’s men’s ODI player of the year.
Cummins, who claimed 21 wickets at an average of 20.04 in the recently held Border-Gavaskar Trophy, was named Test player of the year.
On the other hand, Ashton Agar was crowned Australia’s men's T20I player of the year. In the voting period, he took 13 wickets at 12.46 while he averaged 21.66 with the bat at a strike rate of 122.64.
In the women's game, Beth Mooney bagged her maiden Belinda Clark Award – the prize given to Australia’s best women’s cricketer of the year. Meg Lanning and Georgia Wareham took the second and third positions.
Mooney scored 555 runs in internationals at an average of 42.69 during the voting period. She was in fine form in the ICC T20 World Cup, scoring 259 runs at 64.75, including an unbeaten 78 versus India in the final.
No wonder, Mooney also earned Women's T20I Player of the Year with 30 votes.
Rachael Haynes claimed Women's ODI Player of the Year after scoring 222 runs at an average of 74 in the voting period.
Australian Cricket Awards Winners 2021:
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
(Inputs from ICC)