Ponting wins Allan Border Medal

Ricky Ponting's summer can't stop getting better. After moving to No.1 in the Test rankings and scoring 1544 runs in 2005 he took out the Allan Border Medal in Melbourne with a three-point win over Michael Hussey. Hussey was rewarded with the one-day prize because of Andrew Symonds's ineligbility while Shane Warne picked up the Test Player of the Year gong.

Ponting, 31, polled 83 votes from players, media and umpires to beat Hussey and win his second Border Medal while the rejuvenated fast bowler Brett Lee finished third on 77 votes. Upon accepting his award, the most prestigious in Australian cricket, Ponting also had a message that he wanted the Ashes back.

Ponting got an extra dose of motivation courtesy of a tongue-in-cheek television segment from the former England bowler Phil Tufnell. In the segment Tufnell had a shot at Ponting's side "dropping the Ashes" like South Africa's Herschelle Gibbs did the World Cup in 1999.

"Warney ... just because you're a mate of Kevin Pietersen's, it didn't mean at that last day at The Oval you had to drop him twice," Tufnell teased. "Do you wake up in the middle of the night thinking you might have dropped the Ashes? I have got Herschelle Gibbs's phone number here if you want some counselling."

Ponting was not impressed. "Quite a few guys at my table were pretty fired up at that," Ponting said as soon as he got up to the podium. "I'm not sure whose idea that was, but it certainly made us a bit hungrier to take on the English who are coming here in 290 days time, so we're looking forward to that."

Although 2005 was dominated by the Ashes loss, Ponting's individual form could not be questioned. He hit 1,596 Test runs with seven centuries and also scored 1,137 runs in one-day internationals, with another two hundreds.

Warne won the Test prize on the strength of a superb Ashes tour last year and an outstanding past 12 months, which reaped a world-record 93 wickets. Hussey won the limited-overs award on a countback after he, Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist and Lee finished tied on 22 votes.

"I feel a bit for Andrew Symonds," Hussey said in the Sydney Morning Herald. "I honestly think I'm in a dream, actually, and I'm wondering when it will end. I've just got to try and keep a level head with it all because the game does have a way of bringing you back to earth pretty quickly."

The Allan Border Medal had its first ineligible winner when Symonds, who would have claimed the one-day award with six three-vote matches, was ruled ineligible because he was suspended for a drinking binge during last year's Ashes tour. The former Australian captains Bob Simpson and the late Monty Noble were inducted into Australian cricket's Hall of Fame.

Phil Jaques, who made his Test and one-day debuts this summer, won the State Player of the Year award after taking 75 votes, easily beating Darren Lehmann (35) and Michael Bevan (11). Dan Cullen, the South Australia offspinner, collected the promising player prize, the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year, while Karen Rolton, the new Australia captain, was named the Women's International Player of the Year for the fourth time in five seasons.