Greater recognition for Australian cricket hall of famers will be considered for future editions of the Allan Border and Belinda Clark awards night after past and current players were left surprised and angered by the conspicuous absence of Mike Hussey and Lyn Larsen from presentations this year.
It has been a longtime tradition to publicly acknowledge new hall of famers at the awards night, first held in 2000, and have them or family members speak on stage.
But neither Hussey nor Larsen was mentioned as part of a revamped program that included numerous reshuffles, although both were present as guests.
Hall of famer Mike Hussey has been a recurring member of Australia’s support staff.Credit: Getty Images
The changes included the announcement of format-by-format awards for men and women – including the Shane Warne men’s Test player of the year won by Nathan Lyon – in a non-broadcast part of the evening after the Border and Clark awards had already been handed out to Mitchell Marsh and Ash Gardner.
Three sources with knowledge of talks, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to speak freely, told this masthead those changes resulted from lengthy discussions between Cricket Australia and rights holder Seven about creating a better flow to the broadcast and greater sense of buildup and suspense around the identities of the Border and Clark award winners.
A CA spokesperson confirmed that the prominence given to Hall of Fame entrants would be reconsidered for next year’s event, but indicated that it was unlikely to include a return to full-scale acceptance speeches or interviews because of wider acknowledgements elsewhere.
“Induction in the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame is a very significant honour,” the spokesperson told this masthead. “This year we inducted Hall of Fame members during the MCG and Gabba Tests, a platform that provided a fantastic opportunity to celebrate their achievements in front of thousands of cricket fans attending each Test, and millions more via the broadcasts.
“We constantly review the format of the Australian Cricket Awards and will do so at the end of this summer.”
The Australian cricket awards have undergone many facelifts over the past 24 years, largely because cricket’s mix of formats and the desire to put all awards together on the same night have made it a chaotic program to follow for television viewers.
By contrast, the AFL holds numerous distinct awards evenings for different honours: the Brownlow Medal, the W Awards, Australian Football Hall of Fame inductions and All-Australian team announcements.
That sort of array of awards nights is harder for cricket to achieve because the international calendar makes it difficult for all players to be available as often as their domestic football code equivalents.
Former Australian cricket captain Lyn Larsen was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame this summer.Credit: Jason O’Brien
This was summed up by the fact that CA held a celebratory dinner for the men’s Test Championship and ODI World Cup teams in Melbourne on the night before the awards as it was the first available opportunity to get them all together since the Cup final had taken place in Ahmedabad, nearly three months before.
Hall of fame inductions are typically announced around the time of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, before the inductees or their families speak at the awards night in late January.
This time, however, Hussey was publicly feted at the MCG on Boxing Day and also did several rounds of media and broadcast interviews during the match between Australia and Pakistan.
Larsen, meanwhile, was similarly acknowledged during the Gabba Test against the West Indies, including a presentation at the Cricket Australia and Queensland Cricket hospitality function on the first day of the game.
These events, it was argued, provided far greater prominence and audience reach for the hall of fame than mere acknowledgement with a speech at the awards night in front of invited guests and a smaller broadcast audience than typically tunes into a Test match.
Nevertheless, there was considerable angst in the room at Melbourne’s Crown Casino when neither Hussey nor Larsen was included in the order of garlands presented across the awards night – something that past and present players had come to expect.
In Hussey’s case, his continuing presence as both a commentator on Fox Cricket and a sometime member of the men’s team support staff underlines how highly he is regarded as an expert on the game and also a popular figure with all generations.
Given recent differences of opinion between past and present player groups – not least around the exit of Justin Langer as head coach in 2022 – that is no easy thing to achieve.
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