Contenders shape up for annual awards

It's not only the change of event title that will distinguish Monday night's Australian Cricket Awards ceremony from so many of the recent past.

The events that rocked the national men's team in South Africa last year, and the significant turnover of players in all formats that flowed from the fall-out, will ensure a new name appears on the honour roll at night's end.

With Steve Smith and David Warner – winners of the past four Allan Border Medals and also dominant figures in the Test and ODI Player of the Year voting – ineligible to win and largely absent from polling, the field for the major men's awards will be closely bunched.

And a new Belinda Clark Award winner could also be crowned, with wicketkeeper-batter Alyssa Healy and spearhead Megan Schutt the frontrunners for this year’s award after stunning years with bat and ball respectively following a five-year period that has seen national captain Meg Lanning and star allrounder Ellyse Perry dominate the award for the nation’s top female cricketer. 

For the men, while spinner Nathan Lyon and fast bowler Pat Cummins are likely to lead that race to be named the pre-eminent Australia men's cricketer for the voting period (9 January 2018 – 7 January 2019), it's Cummins' appearances in two formats that sees him a marginal favourite.

Indeed, even though Lyon played more Tests (10 compared to Cummins eight) throughout that 12-month period, and took more wickets (49 as opposed to 36), it might be Cummins' player-of-the-match ODI effort against England at Adelaide on Australia Day last year that gets him over the line for the Allan Border Medal.

Lyon looms as his closest competitor, with Usman Khawaja the leading Test runs scorer for that period which includes the Domain Series against India (but not the recent Sri Lanka Tests) with 592 runs at 32.89 ahead of Tim Paine (460 at 30.67).

The fact that no Test batter averaged 35 means that a bowler is well placed to wear the Medal for the first time since Mitchell Johnson in 2014, with Warner and Smith having shared the honour between them since then.

Votes are weighted to decide the overall Allan Border Medal winner – with those polled in Test matches worth twice those from ODI fixtures, and three-times the T20I votes – to reflect the primacy of the long-form game while also recognising performances across all formats.

Of the players that took part in all 10 Tests over the voting period – Lyon, now-captain Paine, Khawaja and Shaun Marsh – Lyon was the stand-out performer with 49 wickets at 34.80 and is front-runner to be named Test Player of the Year.

Marsh's outstanding form in 50-over cricket, where he has scored three centuries at a strike rate above 100, means he is expected to fight out the ODI Player of the Year award with skipper Aaron Finch (who also posted three tons) and allrounder Marcus Stoinis.

Stoinis's ability to claim key wickets with the ball and provide valuable runs in the lower-middle order should see him poll votes in many of the 13 ODIs he played over the year, which was more than any of his teammates.

Voting for the T20I Player of the Year could be the most closely fought of the men's categories, with the historically high 19 matches played throughout the voting period combining with the volume of players involved in the short format to ensure a wide-spread field.

Australia's three leading scorers in the 20-over game – captain Finch, opener D'Arcy Short and allrounder Glenn Maxwell – will all figure prominently in the final count, as will the top wicket-takers Andrew Tye and Billy Stanlake.

The prize for men's Domestic Player of the Year seems set to be once again claimed by a veteran, with Tasmania keeper-batter Matthew Wade and 2017 winner Cameron White tipped to poll strongly in the voting that's cast by their playing peers.

Newly capped Test opener Marcus Harris is also expected to figure prominently having been the second-highest runs scorer (behind Wade) across JLT Sheffield Shield, JLT Cup and the KFC Big Bash League during the voting period.

Victoria's pace bowling pair Chris Tremain and Scott Boland are also expected to be in the running for the award that, in the past three summers, has gone to old hands Adam Voges, White and George Bailey.

At the other end of the experience scale, the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year will see another budding talent added to a prestigious list that began with inaugural winner Brett Lee in 2000, and was most recently presented to incumbent Test quick, Jhye Richardson.

Outstanding young batting duo Will Pucovski (Victoria) and Josh Philippe (Western Australia) are likely to vie for the award along with bowlers Tom Rogers (Tasmania) and Matthew Kelly (WA).

To be eligible for the Bradman Young Cricketer award, players must be players aged 24 and under and have only played up to five first-class matches by the conclusion of the voting period.

The Australian Cricket Awards are presented by Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers' Association, and Monday's event at Melbourne's Crown Casino will be broadcast live on 7mate and FOX Cricket from 7pm.

Top contenders for 2019 awards

Allan Border Medal: Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Aaron Finch

Belinda Clark Award:  Alyssa Healy, Megan Schutt, Meg Lanning

Test Player of the Year (Male): Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc

ODI Player of the Year (Male): Marcus Stoinis, Aaron Finch, Shaun Marsh

ODI Player of the Year (Female): Alyssa Healy, Ashleigh Gardner, Nicole Bolton

T20 International Player of the Year (Male): D'Arcy Short, Glenn Maxwell, Andrew Tye

T20 International Player of the Year (Female): Megan Schutt, Alyssa Healy, Ashleigh Gardner

Domestic Player of the Year (Male): Matthew Wade, Chris Tremain, Marcus Harris

Domestic Player of the Year (Female): Elyse Villani, Heather Graham, Rene Farrell

Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year (Male): Josh Philippe, Will Pucovski, Tom Rogers

Betty Wilson Young Cricketer of the Year (Female): Stefanie Daffara, Georgia Wareham, Tabatha Saville