Vice Captain Michael Clarke and a shocked skipper Ricky Ponting won the Alan Border medal last night in the first ever tie in the medal ceremony's 10 year history.
Ponting and Clarke were tied on 41 votes at the end, 3 ahead of Michael Hussey and were well ahead of pre-medal favorite Mitchell Johnson and opening batsman Simon Katich who both ended up in 4th place at 30 votes. But the night will be remembered for the dress that Mitch Johnson's girlfriend wore. It was made by the same people who made Rebecca Twigley's dress from 5 years ago. The dress didn't leave much to the imagination and raised eyebrows of many.
In the actual award ceremony Nathan Bracken won One Day player of the year, beating Michael Hussey by 1 vote. Michael Clarke took out the test player of the year award, winning by 2 votes ahead of Simon Katich and Ricky Ponting. Michael Klinger dominated state player of the year award, taking out the award by over 40 votes. Phillip Hughes also took out Bradman young cricketer of the year award, capping off a wonderful summer that could result in him getting a position in the squad to go to South Africa while Women's Cricketer of the year went to Shelley Nitschke. Steve Waugh was inducted into the Hall of fame, joining 29 others including the likes of Bradman, Trumper and Benaud.
There was no count back for the major award, meaning Ponting and Clarke had to share the medal. Ponting was shocked to win his 4th AB medal. "This is an amazing shock to me. I've been sitting back all night just waiting for Pup or Mitch to get up and accept the award," Ponting said. He scored 1283 runs at an average of 37.74 in both forms of the game while Clarke scored 1228 runs at an average of 39.61.
Ponting will now be rested for the final 4 games of the one day series against New Zealand, while Clarke will take over. They play their next game on Friday at the MCG and will be looking to break a 4 game losing streak.
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