It’s cricket’s equivalent of Brownlow Medal night or the Dally M Awards, but the international game’s crazy calendar means many of the stars of the show won’t even be there.
For the first time since its inception in 2000, the Australian Cricket Awards night, where the Allan Border Medal and the Belinda Clark award are presented in a black-tie function at Crown’s Palladium room in Melbourne, will take place on February 3 with the men’s Test team on the road in Sri Lanka.
Allan Border with the medal that bears his name.Credit: Getty Images
The night will go ahead in the middle of Australia’s last series in the world Test championship. The likes of Steve Smith, Travis Head and Mitchell Starc will find out if they have won the medal at the end of the first Test.
Test captain Pat Cummins is likely to be missing from at least part of the tour anyway, as he is expecting the arrival of his second child in late January or early February.
The dates for the Sri Lanka tour are earlier than they would otherwise have been due to the 50-over Champions Trophy, slated to be held in Pakistan in the second half of February before the Indian Premier League.
Cricket Australia has discussed the schedule clash with the Australian Cricketers Association and broadcasters Seven and Foxtel, with a decision taken to hold the awards after the conclusion of the women’s Ashes Test in Melbourne.
“The difference this time will be the fact that the men’s Test team will be over in Sri Lanka,” CA’s head of events Joel Morrison told this masthead. “That’s really a reflection of the evolution of the global game and the increasing playing opportunities overseas while the awards are on.”
Two industry sources with knowledge of plans, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations are confidential, stated the broadcasters had pitched up multiple alternatives to staging the event with the Test team absent.
“CA are very clear on our views,” a source said.
These included the idea of a pre-recorded show that could run parallel to the awards night itself. As it is, segments from the Test team in Sri Lanka, including the potential awarding of the Allan Border Medal itself, will have to be pre-recorded anyway. The team will meet to watch a replay of the broadcast, but tuxedos will not be required.
Seven declined to comment.
“This is the first time where we literally haven’t been able to find a window where all players can be in the one location at the one time,” Morrison said, “without conflicting with a BBL game and still holding it in the thick of the cricket season as opposed to at the end of the season for club and state cricket in March.
“It’s the first time we haven’t been able to have the men’s Test team there, but we’ll have our Australian women’s team, WBBL and BBL players, and men’s white-ball players as well.”
The alternative would have been to hold the awards earlier in January after the end of the current men’s Test series between Australia and India.
Mitchell Marsh with the Allan Border Medal in January.Credit: Getty Images
That scenario would have allowed the stars of the Test team to be present, but would also have put the awards in the thick of the Big Bash League and have them take place before the women’s international season was done.
CA has already planned for the Test squad to Sri Lanka to travel to the UAE for a few days for a training camp, departing Australia on January 19 and then arriving in Galle on January 24.
Typically held in the last week of January or first of February, the awards have often taken place a night or two before the men’s team flies overseas for a tour.
While the Brownlow, in particular, has become a juggernaut event for the AFL and television audiences, the Allan Border and Belinda Clark awards have struggled by comparison as they try to be all things to all people.
The night is meant to recognise the best men’s and women’s international cricketers, but also domestic players and Hall of Fame inductees.
Seven has been working on the format of the awards for some time, and last year experimented with a model that raised the prominence of the Border and Clark awards but left the international format awards – for Tests, ODIs and T20Is – to a non-televised part of the ceremony, and also cut the Hall of Fame inductions.
“The format last year was really appealing and received universally well by broadcasters, so we think we’ve found a recipe,” Morrison said.
“There’s three formats of the game, international and domestic, men’s and women’s competitions and teams. So being able to celebrate all of the cricket summer is different to celebrating one award or one league.”
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
