Image Credit- CA
At the 2024 Australian Cricket Awards, Mitchell Marsh
won the Allan Border Medalist, capping an incredible rise to become one of
Australia’s most important players. Meanwhile, Ashleigh Gardner won the Belinda
Clark Award, recognising a year in which her bowling became a vital part of the
team in all formats.
In the middle of the 2023 Ashes in England, Marsh made
a spectacular comeback to Test cricket when he was called up to Headingley,
where he struck a run-a-ball 118. During the ODI World Cup, he went on to score
441 runs at 49, including 177 runs without a loss against Bangladesh.
He became emotional during his acceptance speech as he
thank his wife, Greta, captain Pat Cummins and coach Andrew McDonald
“I’m a bit fat at times and I love a beer but you
see the best in me always and you’ve changed my life,” he said. “For
your support and your leadership, Patty, playing under you is a dream.”
“I often spoke to my wife about…,” Marsh
said before having to collection himself “… that I just wanted to get
one more crack at it, and it’s been amazing. She gave me the perspective on
life that I needed.”
In total, Marsh scored 594 runs in six Tests at 66
during the voting period, which is set to begin on January 22, 2023, and end on
January 9, 2024. He scored 858 runs at a strike average of 113.94 in One-Day
Internationals (ODIs). In addition, he will have accrued points for his
brilliant T20I series against South Africa, in which he scored 92* and 79* in
three innings of play.
In the overall medal count, he received a whopping 79
more votes than Cummins, who came in second, and Steven Smith, who came in
third.
“I’m sort of hoping me winning this is not like
Covid and you look back on it and three years time and go, ‘This was a weird
time’,” Marsh joked. “One of my friends sent me the list today and I
just thought – if I win it’s going to look weird.”
Gardner received the Belinda Clark Award twice, having
previously won it in 2022. She was only 13 votes ahead of Ellyse Perry in the
lead, thanks in large part to her performance in the Ashes Test, where she took
match statistics of 12 for 165. Annabel Sutherland came in third.
“It’s been an interesting year,” Gardner
said. “Think a lot of people probably think I’m more of a batter, or
batting allrounder, but over the last 12-24 months think my bowling has
probably evolved a lot quicker than what I was thinking. I’ve put a lot of
trust in my captain to bring me on at different times and being able to reap
those rewards of taking wickets has been a nice change.”