Mitchell Starc has won his first Allan Border Medal, narrowly defeating Mitchell Marsh by one vote on Saturday. During the voting period, the left-armer took a total of 43 wickets at 24.4 in all formats, including a key role in Australia’s 4-0 Ashes victory and at the T20 World Cup.
Marsh, who was named best men’s T20I player of the year after being named player-of-the-match in the T20 World Cup final in November, had his best white ball season for Australia. Marsh’s tally of 106 was surpassed by Starc, who was also named men’s ODI player of the year, as voted by peers, umpires, and the media.
During the voting period, Marsh amassed 684 runs at 34.2, including an unbeaten 77 off 50 balls in a World Cup final victory over New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Starc returned to form in the Test arena this summer, taking a wicket with the first ball of the Ashes series. He went on to take 19 wickets at 25.36 in the series, trailing only Pat Cummins’ haul of 21.
Nonetheless, Starc’s total of 43 wickets in all formats during the voting period was 12 more than the second-highest on the list, Josh Hazlewood, who had 31 at 15.5. Starc was named men’s ODI player of the year for his performance against the West Indies in mid-2021, when he took 11 wickets at 10.6 in three games. Travis Head only played four matches during the voting period, all at the Ashes, but he finished third in the AB Medal vote count with 72 votes.
He was named Ashes player-of-the-series after scoring 357 runs at 59.5.
Meanwhile, Ashleigh Gardner won the Belinda Clark Award with 54 votes, seven more than Beth Mooney, who came in second place, becoming the award’s first indigenous winner. Gardner scored 181 runs at 35.1 in 10 innings, including four half-centuries, and took nine wickets at 33.9.