Cummins, Healy win Oz awards

MELBOURNE: Fast bowler Pat Cummins won Australian cricket’s highest individual honour on Monday for his performances during a year when the national team’s results were overshadowed by bans for Steve Smith and David Warner following a balltampering scandal.

Cummins won the Allan Border medal for Australia’s leading men’s cricketer with 156 votes, six ahead of off-spinner Nathan Lyon, who was voted Test cricket Player of the Year.

Alyssa Healy won the Belinda Clark award for the leading Australian Women’s Cricketer of the Year. Healy won the top women’s award with the One-day International and Twenty20 honours. She was voted player of the tournament when Australia won the women’s Twenty20 World Cup in the Caribbean last year.

Alyssa is Australia paceman Mitchell Starc’s wife and also the niece of former Australia wicketkeeper Ian Healy.

Cummins took 44 wickets at an average of 25.61 across all formats during the 12-month voting period, which did not include his man-of-the-series performance in the recent win over Sri Lanka.

The 25-year-old Cummins, who took seven wickets on his Test debut as a teenager against South Africa in 2011 but didn’t play another Test match until 2017, has moved to No. 2 in the rankings for bowlers.

He struggled with back injuries after making his international debut but since returning against India in 2017 has been a regular in the Australian Test lineup. Cummins won maximum votes in the Cape Town Test last March, which was overshadowed by the ball-tampering scandal.

ALYSSA HEALY, WHO WAS VOTED PLAYER OF THE WORLD T20, WON THE BELINDA CLARK AWARD FOR THE LEADING AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S CRICKETER OF THE YEAR