Steve Smith, Beth Mooney named as Australian cricketers of the year

Jasper Bruce
Jan 30, 2023, updated Jan 30, 2023

Beth Mooney and Steve Smith were crowned Australia’s best cricketers in 2022. Photos: AAP

Steve Smith and Beth Mooney have been named Australia’s men’s and women’s cricketers of the year at the Australian Cricket Awards.

Smith collected his fourth Allan Border Medal, presented to the best male cricketer, on Monday night to join Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke in winning the award four times.

After 3-2-1 votes from players, umpires and media were tallied, Smith (171 votes) comfortably beat out second-placed Travis Head (144) and David Warner (141) in third.

Despite falling out of favour in the T20I set-up, Smith sealed the medal with a tally of 1547 runs this season across all formats at an average of 55.3.

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Smith reaped the rewards of a year-long process to revamp his batting technique and at the beginning of the home summer, said he felt the most comfortable at the crease that he had in six years.

He went on to make an unbeaten 200 runs against West Indies, his highest Test score since 2019, and backed it up with 104 runs in his home Test at the SCG against South Africa. At Test level, Smith has averaged 71.92 in the past 12 months.

For the second time, batter Mooney received the Belinda Clark Award as Australia’s best female cricketer after polling 129 votes.

Meg Lanning finished second in the tally with 110 votes, despite an extended leave of absence, and all-rounder Tahlia McGrath placed third with 95.

Averaging 100.75 across 10 ODIs last year, Mooney was a crucial member of Australia’s gold medal-winning Commonwealth Games campaign and their triumph at the ODI World Cup campaign, where she was named in the team of the tournament.

Mooney was also named Women’s ODI Player Of The Year and in her most recent ODI, posted a career-high 133 runs to help Australia complete a clean sweep of the home series against Pakistan.

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As part of the ceremony at Randwick Racecourse, Test revenant Usman Khawaja was named the inaugural Shane Warne Men’s Test Player Of The Year for his consistency with the bat locally and abroad.

After breaking back into the side last summer, Khawaja cemented his spot in the Australian team as the most impressive batter on the Test tour of Pakistan.

He set a new personal best in his most recent Test, managing an unbeaten 195 against South Africa at the SCG.

David Warner was named the ODI Player Of The Year, with Adam Zampa overlooked for nomination despite being selected in the ICC’s ODI Team Of The Year.