Australian allrounder edges Beth Mooney to claim consecutive top honours

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Annabel Sutherland has been crowned Australia’s leading female cricketer for the second year in a row, winning the Belinda Clark Award and joining an elite group of players to achieve the feat in consecutive seasons.

Sutherland narrowly beat Beth Mooney in the voting, finishing with 77 votes to Mooney’s 74, in a season heavily shaped by the ODI World Cup. Aside from the global tournament, the assessment period included Australia’s three-match T20I series against New Zealand last March and a three-game ODI series against India in the build-up to the World Cup.

The 23-year-old allrounder also secured the ODI Player of the Year award and became the first cricketer to win the Belinda Clark Award in back-to-back years since Meg Lanning achieved the double in 2014 and 2015. Current Australia head coach Shelley Nitschke remains the only player to have won the award four times consecutively (2009–2012), while Karen Rolton and Lisa Sthalekar are other multiple-time winners in successive years.

“That’s pretty special to be alongside a few of those names,” Sutherland said. “I think it’s pretty cool and very surreal at the moment.”
“I was pretty surprised, to be honest. I hadn’t put much thought into it around who was going to win. It’s an absolutely special feeling and I’m super grateful to receive the award from BC.”

On the field, Sutherland enjoyed an outstanding ODI campaign, scoring 216 runs at an average of 43.20 across nine matches, including a career-best 98 not out against England. With the ball, she claimed 19 wickets at 18.84. In the T20I series against New Zealand, she added another eight wickets to underline her allround impact.

Mooney was recognised with the T20I Player of the Year award after amassing 166 runs at an average of 83.00 in the same New Zealand series. Legspinner Alana King finished third in the overall Belinda Clark Award voting, having taken 13 wickets at the ODI World Cup, including a record-breaking 7 for 18 against South Africa.

Earlier announcements saw Nicola Carey named Domestic Player of the Year and Caoimhe Bray awarded Betty Wilson Young Cricketer of the Year.

Usually, the annual Cricket Australia awards are presented at a gala event, but congested international schedules made it impossible for both the men’s and women’s teams to be in the country at the same time. Last year, Travis Head received the Allan Border Medal in Sri Lanka, while the 2026 men’s award winners will be announced at a later date.

“It looked different, but it was still special to have Belinda Clark there and do it in front of the team,” Sutherland said. “It would be nice to get the whole Australian cricket world together to celebrate, but it wasn’t to be this year.”

Meanwhile, former Australia captain Alex Blackwell was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame. Blackwell enjoyed a distinguished international career from 2003 to 2018, playing 251 matches across formats, including 12 Tests, 144 ODIs and 95 T20Is.

In ODIs, she scored 3,492 runs at an average of 36.00, including all three of her international centuries, and was part of Australia’s World Cup-winning teams in 2005 and 2013. She also captained Australia to their maiden Women’s T20 World Cup title in 2010.