Annabel Sutherland bags Belinda Clark Award for second year in a row

Australia all-rounder Annabel Sutherland has secured the Belinda Clark Award – the highest annual honour for a woman cricketer in Australia – for the second time in a row, becoming the first player to bag consecutive awards since former captain Meg Lanning (2014 and 2015). Australia’s incumbent coach Shelly Nitschke holds the record with four awards in a row (2009 to 2012), while Karen Rolton and Lisa Sthalekar have also won it back-to-back.

Sutherland edged out Beth Mooney by a narrow margin of three votes, receiving 77 votes to Mooney’s 74, while Alana King was a distant third with 56.

The period considered for the award included the Women’s ODI World Cup and Australia’s white-ball series against New Zealand (three T20Is) and India (three ODIs) ahead of the World Cup. Sutherland took 27 wickets at an average of 15.63 and score 250 runs at an average of 41.66 across formats.

“It was definitely a surprise, but it’s a huge honour and I’m very grateful to win the Belinda Clark Award – an award named after a legend of the game,” Sutherland was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz. “To know that I have contributed across the last couple of years is always the goal.

“I want to be able to consistently contribute to this team and to team success first and foremost. We are now all looking forward to the upcoming series against India, starting with the first T20 International tonight.”

Sutherland also won the 2026 ODI Player of the Year honour, while Mooney clinched the T20 Player of the Year award. Mooney scored 166 runs at an average of 83 in the three-match New Zealand series. Leg-spinner King, who ended third after the voting, picked up 13 wickets at the ODI World Cup.

Meanwhile, Alex Blackwell, the former Australia captain, was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame on Sunday (February 15). Blackwell played 12 Tests, 144 ODIs and 95 T20Is in a career spanning from 2003 to 2018. She captained Australia to their maiden T20 World Cup title in 2010 and was also part of ODI World Cup-winning teams in 2005 and 2013.

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