Hat-trick of awards for Australia's Steve Smith

Sydney, Jan 27: Steve Smith today became just the 10th player to win Australian cricket's greatest individual honour when he was named the Allan Border Medallist for 2015.

The 25 year-old from New South Wales secured a hat-trick of awards by also collecting the Test and One-Day International (ODI) Player of the Year awards, becoming only the third man after Ricky Ponting in 2007 and Shane Watson four years later to achieve the feat.

Australian women's team captain Meg Lanning won the Belinda Clark Award for the second year in a row, confirmation of her stellar 12 months with the bat and as captain of the side that retained the ICC Women's World Twenty20 in Bangladesh, while all-rounder Glenn Maxwell was named Twenty20 Player of the Year.

Left-arm seam and swing bowler Jason Behrendorff of Western Australia and the Perth Scorchers secured the award for the Domestic Player of the Year while fellow pace bowler Sean Abbott was named Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year having debuted for Australia in 2014.

Adam Gilchrist and Jack Ryder were also formally inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame to complete a glittering night at Carriageworks in Sydney.

Reflecting on his three awards Smith, who also captained Australia to a 2-0 Test series win over India in the absence of the injured Michael Clarke to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, said: "I guess I am surprised to win the three awards," he said.

"I have had an amazing year and it is something to be really proud of. I am joining an illustrious group who have come before me this evening and to win these awards is a dream come true.

"It has been a focus of mine to convert starts into really big hundreds and I am proud to do that. I am really happy with where my game is at," he added.

Smith was the top run-scorer for Australia across the three formats of Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) with 1756 runs at 67.54 during the voting period that started with the ODI against England at the WACA in Perth on 24 January 2014 and ran through to the fourth Test against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground that wrapped up on 10 January this year.

The right-hander polled a total of 243 votes in the Allan Border Medal count to finish well clear of his nearest challenger, fellow New South Welshman and opening batsman David Warner, who collected 175 votes during the same period. Last year's Allan Border Medal winner Mitchell Johnson (126) finished third in the count, a position he matched in the Test Player of the Year award.

Smith was Australia's top Test run-scorer during the period under consideration, totalling 1212 runs at a phenomenal average of 86.57, including five fifties and five hundreds and he was one of only two players - the other was Warner (1209), who finished second in the Test Player of the Year ballot too - to top 1000 Test runs in the nine matches Australia played.

In ODIs, no one could better Smith's average of 49.18 with 541 runs from 12 matches and only Aaron Finch, the runner-up in the ODI ballot, was more prolific, although his 647 runs came from three more matches than Smith. James Faulkner finished in third place in the 50-overs category.

The Allan Border Medal awards ceremony began in 2000. Named after one of Australia's greatest players and the man who, in 1987, became the first Australian to lift the ICC Cricket World Cup, it recognises the country's leading players.

The Award winners

• Allan Border Medal - Steve Smith
• Belinda Clark Award - Meg Lanning
• Test Player of the Year - Steve Smith
• One-Day International Player of the Year - Steve Smith
• T20 International Player of the Year - Glenn Maxwell
• Domestic Player of the Year - Jason Behrendorff (Western Australia/Perth Scorchers)
• Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year - Sean Abbott (New South Wales/Sydney Sixers)

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