Sutherland wins back-to-back Belinda Clark Awards

Annabel Sutherland has won the Belinda Clark Award as Australia's leading female player for the second year running.

Sutherland pipped Beth Mooney to the top award 77 votes to 74 for a period that was dominated by the ODI World Cup. Outside of that tournament the only other matches included were the three-game T20I series against New Zealand last March and three ODIs against India ahead of the World Cup.

Sutherland, who unsurprisingly also took the ODI award, is the first player to go back-to-back for the Belinda Clark Award since Meg Lanning in 2014 and 2015. Current Australia coach Shelly Nitschke won it four years in a row from 2009 to 2012. Karen Rolton and Lisa Sthalekar are others to have won it back-to-back.

"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. [An] absolutely special feeling and super grateful to receive the award from BC [Belinda Clark]."

Across the nine ODIs Australia played, Sutherland scored 216 runs at 43.20 with a best of 98 not out against England and claimed 19 wickets at 18.84. In the three T20Is against New Zealand she also took eight wickets.

Mooney took the T20I player of the year award for making 166 runs at 83.00 in the New Zealand series.

Legspinner Alana King came third in the overall voting after claiming 13 wickets at the ODI World Cup including a record 7 for 18 against South Africa.

Nicola Carey and Caoimhe Bray were previously announced as the domestic player of the year and Betty Wilson young cricketer of the year.

Normally the Cricket Australia awards are announced at a gala event around this time of the year, but the schedules of the men's and women's teams have made it impossible to find a date when players are in the country at the same time. Last year Travis Head was handed the Allan Border Medal at a hotel in Sri Lanka. The 2026 men's winners will be announced at a later date.

"It looked different [but] still special obviously to have [Belinda Clark] there and do it in front of the team, most importantly," Sutherland said. "It'd be nice to get the whole of the Australian cricket world together to be able to celebrate, but it wasn't to be this year."

Meanwhile, also on Sunday, former Australia captain Alex Blackwell was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame. Blackwell's international career spanned 2003 to 2018 where she played 251 matches across formats including 12 Tests, 144 ODIs and 95 T20Is.

In ODIs she scored 3492 runs at 36.00 including all three of her international centuries and played in the ODI World Cup winning teams of 2005 and 2013. She captained Australia to their first T20 World Cup title in 2010.