Head, who was terrific with the bat across three formats, pipped Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins by a healthy margin. He earned 208 votes, 50 and 61 more than Hazlewood (158) and Cummins (147) respectively.
Additionally, the 31-year-old also earned the Men’s ODI Player of the World while falling short by a rank in the T20I and Test format. Hazlewood outclassed Head by a margin of a solitary point to win Australia’s Test Player of the Year Award while Zampa snared emerged on top in the limited overs format.
Head mustered 1427 runs in the eligibility period, 621 more than Steve Smith, the second-best in the list. His centuries in Adelaide (140) and Brisbane (152) were pivotal in helping Australia bounce back from the defeat in Perth.
“I had clarity on how I wanted to do it, that was never guaranteed to have success, I am very fortunate and very lucky it was able to pay off on the first day I tried to make that shift. I had done it in the domestic season leading up to that but Test cricket is a different kettle of fish. I had clarity on what I wanted to achieve and how I wanted to go about it but that’s never guaranteed, it could have been one more series and back to South Australia. I understood that I was fine with that if it was 25 Tests and done, at least I gave it a crack – I am very pleased it worked that day.”
On the flip side, Sutherland won the Belinda Clarke Award for her scintillating achievement across formats. Recently, she became the first woman cricketer to have her name instilled in the MCG boards. Her century against England helped Australia clean sweep their arch-rivals in the multi-format Ashes.
The 23-year-old beat Ashleigh Gardner and Beth Mooney—the duo who received the honorary award in alternate seasons for the past four years—by 25 and 53 votes, respectively.
