Mitchell Starc bags Allan Border medal for first time

Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc has won the Allan Border Medal for the very first time in his career, making him only the fifth fast bowler after Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Pat Cummins to win the award.

Among the women, Ashleigh Gardner took the top honours, winning the Belinda Clark award at the Cricket Australia Awards.

Starc, who was also named ODI player of the year, picked up 43 wickets across formats in 2021 at 24.4. 

Mitchell Marsh who failed to pip Starc for the top honour by one vote was unsurprisingly named the T20I player of the year after playing a huge role in helping Australia clinch their maiden T20 World Cup title a few months ago.

Travis Head, the player of the series in the recently-concluded Ashes series, was named his country's Test and domestic cricketer of the year.

On the Women's front. Gardener won the Belinda Clark medal by a margin of seven votes ahead of Beth Mooney. In her 10 innings this year, Gardner scored 281 runs at 35.1 and with the ball, she picked up nine wickets. As a result, she was among the top three run-getters and top five wicket-takers for her team in 2021.

Wicketkeeper-batter Alyssa Healy claimed the Female ODI player of the year for the third consecutive time while Mooney took home the T20 Player of the Year. 

Full list of CA Award winners:

Allan Border Medal - Mitchell Starc

Belinda Clark Award - Ashleigh Gardner

Female ODI Player of the Year - Alyssa Healy

Female T20I Player of the Year - Beth Mooney

Male Test Player of the Year - Travis Head

Male ODI Player of the Year - Mitchell Starc

Male T20I Player of the Year - Mitchell Marsh

Female Domestic Player of the Year - Elyse Villani

Male Domestic Player of the Year - Travis Head

Betty Wilson Young Cricketer of the Year - Darcie Brown

Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year - Tim Ward

Community Champion Award - Zoe Cooke

Australian Cricket Hall of Fame inductees - Raelee Thompson and Justin Langer