Your full round up of every award winner at the 2024 Australian Cricket Awards event held at Melbourne's Crown Casino
All the winners at the 2024 Australian Cricket Awards
Allan Border Medal: Mitch Marsh
An unexpected result, but a landslide victory for the popular allrounder Mitch Marsh, who romped to his first Allan Border medal with 233 votes, 79 ahead of Pat Cummins.
While Marsh had established himself as a major figure as a powerhouse top-order batter and handy bowler in the white-ball teams over the preceding years, it was his stunning return to the Baggy Green that was the major factor in landing the most prestigious individual prize in Australian men's cricket.
Marsh is the first allrounder to take out the award in more than a decade, with Shane Watson the last to do it in 2011.
A decision to have keyhole surgery on his left ankle in January 2023 with an eye towards making the mid-year Ashes tour paid off in spades. Recalled to the XI in the third Test which Cameron Green missed with an injury, he scored a rollicking 118, provide a handful with the ball, and hasn't looked back.
He passed fifty in half of his next 10 Test innings, including scores of 90 and 96 during the home summer against Pakistan.
Meanwhile, he was named captain of Australia's white-ball teams when Cummins was unavailable, was a beast during the ODI World Cup, hitting a career-high 177no against Bangladesh having flown back to Perth mid-tournament for the death of his maternal grandfather, Ross.
Read more on Marsh's incredible year here
Belinda Clark Award: Ashleigh Gardner
Ashleigh Gardner has underlined her standing as one of the world's best allrounders with a second Belinda Clark Award, adding to the one she claimed in 2022.
Gardner polled 147 votes to finish ahead of allrounder Ellyse Perry (134 votes) and Annabel Sutherland (106 votes).
The off-spinning allrounder took more wickets than any other Australian woman across all formats in the voting period – claiming 56 at 19.39 in 30 matches – miles ahead of Georgia Wareham (30 at 21.13) and Megan Schutt (28 at 23.36).
The voting period took in the women's home T20s against Pakistan, the T20 World Cup in South Africa, the multi-format Ashes, ODIs in Ireland, the home T20I and ODI series against West Indies and the all-format tour of India.
It was Gardner's heroics in the Test arena in particular that helped her secure the award.
With Australia looking for their first Test win since 2015 when they met England at Trent Bridge in June, Gardner spun her team to victory, taking 12-165 for the match – the second-best figures in the history of women's Tests.
Shane Warne Men's Test Player of the Year: Nathan Lyon
Nathan Lyon might look back on 2023 as his year of Ashes agony, but the evergreen spinner's effectiveness either side of his devastating calf injury sees him crowed Australia's leading Test player for the year.
Lyon was a deserved victor of the award named after the only spin bowler ahead of him on Australia's all-time wicket-taking charts, taking out the Shane Warne Test award.
Despite missing the final three-and-a-half matches of Australia's UK tour, the right-armer took more wickets than any of his fellow bowlers in the 10 Tests he played during the voting period.
Lyon was immense during the preceding tour of India, fighting back from a modest series opener in Nagpur where he took only one wicket in 49 overs to bowl Australia to one of their best wins in recent memory in Indore.
He took 11 wickets for the match, including 8-64 in the second innings, to seal Australia's spot in the World Test Championship final. Eight wickets and a nerveless knock with the bat in a 55-run match-winning stand in the Ashes opener at Edgbaston came before he went down with his calf injury at Lord's.
His 500th Test wicket in the summer opener in Perth was the highlight of a home summer in which he demonstrated he still has plenty to give in the twilight of his career.
Women's T20I Player of the Year: Ellyse Perry
Just 18 months ago, Ellyse Perry had been dropped from Australia's best T20I XI due to her strike rate and had outsiders questioning her future in the format.
But the veteran allrounder came back with a vengeance, unlocking a whole new level in her batting to again become a force in Australia's middle order.
For the voting period, Perry hit 390 runs from 13 innings at a strike rate of 148.29. Prior to that, her career scoring rate in the format at international level was 109.83.
Given the chance to open the batting at North Sydney Oval in January when Alyssa Healy was injured, Perry struck an unbeaten 57 from 40 balls.
Her opportunities in the T20 World Cup were more limited, but she started the tournament with 40 off 22 balls at No.5 against New Zealand.
Perry's newfound power game again came to the fore at The Oval during the multi-format Ashes when she hammered 51no from 27 balls, while her 34no from 21 against India in a must-win game at DY Patil Stadium earlier this month was another highlight.
Women's ODI Player of the Year: Ellyse Perry
Perry's improvements to her T20 batting game also translated across to her one-day batting, where she produced a career-best year in terms of her strike rate.
She was a solid presence at first drop during the one-day leg of the multi-format Ashes, starting the series with 42 in Bristol and ending it with 53 in Taunton.
But it was her superb 91 in difficult batting conditions at Southampton that was critical in Australia's Ashes retention.
She top-scored as Australia posted 7-282, a target they defended by just three runs. The two points they earned for that win ensured they would return home with the trophy.
Perry hit another 91, this time from 99 balls against Ireland in Dublin, and ended the year in ODIs with two pivotal performances at Wankhede Stadium.
She struck 75 from 72 balls in the series opener as Australia cantered to victory, then carved out 50 from 47 balls in the second game of the series, sharing a 77-run stand with Phoebe Litchfield that helped Australia to a match-winning total of 8-258.
Men's ODI Player of the Year: Mitch Marsh
Having played an integral role in one of Australia's most unlikely world titles, Mitch Marsh's renaissance as an international cricketer was recognised after the popular allrounder was crowned Australia's leading ODI player for 2023.
In a hotly contested field, Marsh beat out fellow World Cup heroes David Warner, Travis Head and Adam Zampa to take out his first 50-over prize.
The Western Australian won the T20I award two years ago, but the past 12 months have marked a golden period for him in the longer white-ball format.
Marsh has thrived as a top-order player in both T20s and ODIs in recent times, with a run of quick-fire scores from the opener's position in a bilateral series in India in March (81, 66no and 47) planting the seed for him to take on the new ball for the first part of the World Cup later in the year.
Knocks of 52 and 121 in Australia's first two wins of the tournament proved integral in turning around the eventual champions' fortunes as Marsh formed a formidable partnership with Warner.
Even when Travis Head returned and knocked Marsh down to No.3, he proved equally adept there, blasting 177 off just 132 balls from first drop in the final group match against Bangladesh in Pune.
Men's T20I Player of the Year: Jason Behrendorff
Western Australia's reputation as a powerhouse provider of short-form talent was enhanced as Jason Behrendorff became that state's fourth consecutive winner of the men’s T20I player of the year.
It was very much an off-Broadway year for men's T20s at the international level – Australia played just two bilateral T20I series over the voting period, which took in a three-match campaign against South Africa in August as well as five games tacked on after the ODI World Cup in India – the tours proved significant for Behrendorff.
He ended a two-year absence from the format in Durban with a tidy return of 2-25, but it was his unheralded efforts in India that clinched him Wednesday's night award. Amid run fests in the opening two matches, Behrendorff returned figures of 1-25 and 1-12 off respective four-over spells. His miserliness in the latter match in Guwahati was particularly notable given India scored at better than 11 runs per over to post 3-222.
Sean Abbott and Tanveer Sangha took more wickets than Behrendorff over the voting period (10 and 9 respectively, compared to Behrendorff's eight) yet the 33-year-old's economy rate of 6.68 during his five games (no other Australian went at under 8.26) meant he was an obvious pick.
Behrendorff, who follows Ashton Agar (2021), Mitch Marsh (2022) and Marcus Stoinis (2023) as WA products to win the men’s T20I gong, will hope it will have him in consideration for a T20 World Cup berth later this year.
Women's Domestic Players of the Year: Elyse Villani and Sophie Day
Elyse Villani has claimed her third domestic gong in four years, this season sharing the award with Victoria and Melbourne Stars spinner Sophie Day.
Villani's had another outstanding year with the bat as she led Tasmania to their second straight WNCL title in 2022-23.
During the voting period, she hit 951 runs at an average of 52.83 for Tasmania and the Hobart Hurricanes.
That included 627 runs in the one-day competition, including three centuries and a half-century.
The most memorable and important of those innings came in last season's WNCL final, when Villani top-scored with 110 against South Australia at Blundstone Arena.
The right-hander also hit 324 runs at 36 during the Hurricanes' WBBL|09 campaign.
Left-arm spinner Day had a dream run in green in WBBL|09, finishing a stunning season as the BKT Golden Arm after taking 27 wickets at 12.48.
Day's star grew throughout a campaign that saw her claim career-best figures of 5-25, alongside three four-wicket hauls.
The 25-year-old, who combines her cricket with a passion for art, has also grown into herself in the one-day domestic format.
Across the voting period she also picked up 14 wickets for Victoria.
The Women's Domestic Player of the Year award covered the period between December 5, 2022 and December 5, 2023, which takes in the second half of the 2022-23 WNCL season and the first half of the ongoing one, plus Weber WBBL|09.
Men's Domestic Player of the Year: Cameron Bancroft
Undoubtedly the premier batter in men's domestic cricket over the past 12 months, Cameron Bancroft was a clear-cut pick for this honour in 2024. Taking in Sheffield Shield, Marsh Cup and Big Bash matches played between December 5, 2022 and December 5, 2023, Bancroft hit 1636 runs across all the formats.
That put him more than 200 runs clear of the next highest run scorer, Matt Short.
Bancroft is again the Shield's leading scorer in games completed so far this season, which fell in the voting period, with 512 runs at 56.88, including two centuries and three half-centuries from his nine innings.
He also topped the competition tally by almost 300 runs last summer as his opening knocks helped Western Australia claim back-to-back titles, and hit 462 at 66 after the Big Bash break, including an epic 176 not out against Tasmania.
This recognition, however, will have a tinge of bittersweet about it for the 31-year-old from Perth, as despite the sustained prolific form in first-class cricket, Bancroft was unable to break back into the Australian Test XI this summer and add to his 10 Test caps.
In Marsh Cup games he struck 305 at 43.57 in the voting period, including 90 in last summer's final that was a lopsided win against South Australia.
Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year: Fergus O'Neill
A breakout year for the 23-year-old Victorian quick Fergus O'Neill who has rapidly established himself as a lynchpin for his state.
Something of a cult hero, O'Neill has taken 50 wickets in 16 games across formats in voting period for this award, with two five-wicket hauls.
Both of those came in a superb, match-winning performance against South Australia in the final round of Shield cricket before the voting window closed. He took 5-28 in the first innings and 5-83 in the second, dismissing Aussie Test 'keeper Alex Carey twice in the game, the second of which opened the door for O'Neill to push Victoria to the win.
That followed impressive outings against NSW and Queensland in Shield cricket, while in the One-Day Cup he claimed 3-33 while running through Tasmania's top order in another hand win for the Vics.
O'Neill then took the final spot on the Melbourne Renegades list this summer, and while that tournament was outside of the voting period for this award, he impressed in the two games he played, knocking over Caleb Jewell with a seed for his first wicket in the competition.
O'Neill is the 25th recipient of the award first handed out in 2000 to Brett Lee, with all but two of the first 20 recipients having gone on to represent the country.
Betty Wilson Young Cricketer of the Year: Emma de Broughe
An opening batter from South Australia who made her state debut in the Women's National Cricket League in 2019, Emma de Broughe has steadily been building her reputation at the elite domestic level.
Of those eligible for the award, de Broughe was the top-scorer, hitting 731 runs at an average of 43 and with a high score of 112 not out, scored against the ACT Meteors in December 2022.
She also hit four half-centuries throughout the voting period, all in the WNCL.
The 23-year-old got an unexpected opportunity in the WBBL earlier this summer, signed by the Melbourne Renegades as an injury replacement for Sophie Molineux.
There, she was given the chance to play seven games throughout WBBL|09, with her knocks of 42 off 35 against the Heat, and an unbeaten 40 from 19 against the Hurricanes, putting her name up in lights.
To be eligible for the Betty Wilson Young Cricketer of the Year Award, players must be aged 24 or younger at the start of the voting period (December 5, 2022). They must also have played fewer than 25 List A or T20 matches at that time, and cannot have previously won the award.
KFC BBL|13 Player of the Tournament: Matt Short (Adelaide Strikers)
Matt Short has had an outstanding Big Bash season with the Adelaide Strikers to be a clear-cut winner of the player of the tournament. The competition's top run-scorer by a mile – his 541 was 175 ahead of next best Josh Brown of the Brisbane Heat, while striking at a very handy clip of 153.25, and passing fifty in six of his 11 innings.
His 25 sixes were also the most in the competition this summer – most of them deposited in the members stand at Adelaide Oval, and saw him overshadow opening partner Chris Lynn, who cleared the rope 14 times.
He also claimed five wickets in 26 overs across the competition with his improving off-breaks, and as skipper of the Strikers helped the team turn around a mid-season slump to charge into the finals, where they fell in the penultimate game to eventual champions Brisbane Heat.
Short, who got engaged to two-time Australian Olympic swim champion Madi Wilson on the eve of the BBL season, has become a regular fixture in the national white-ball squads over the past six months, and will be looking to replicate his Big Bash form in his first home international series against the West Indies from Friday.
Weber WBBL|09 Player of the Tournament: Chamari Athapaththu (Sydney Thunder)
First announced back in November at the conclusion of the tournament, Chamari Athapaththu has again been recognised as the WBBL|09 Player of the Tournament.
Athapaththu had a point to prove when she arrived in Australia in early October, after initially being overlooked in the WBBL overseas draft before landed by the Sydney Thunder as a last-minute replacement player.
Athapaththu finished the regular season second on the runs table with 511 runs at 42.58, striking at 129.69. She also picked up nine wickets including 3-20 against the Sixers and maintained an economy rate of 6.79.
The Sydney Thunder import won a tight race by a single vote over Adelaide Strikers opener Katie Mack for the award, voted on a 3-2-1 basis by the standing umpires in each match.