David Warner has edged out his highly fancied captain Steve Smith to claim a second successive Allan Border Medal, finishing narrowly clear of his skipper just as he did a year ago.
He becomes the fourth man to land Australian cricket's highest honour in consecutive years, and it came just a day after Warner blasted his fifth century of the home summer.
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David Warner claims second AB Medal
David Warner joins the elites, winning his second Allan Border Medal.
The 2015 winner Smith was favoured to be awarded his second AB Medal after a stellar 12 months with the bat, but finished with 248 votes behind Warner's 269 as the vice-captain joined Ricky Ponting (2006, 2007), Shane Watson (2010, 2011), and Michael Clarke (2012, 2013) on the back-to-back winners' list.
Warner was also named one-day-international player of the year at the Star Casino on Monday night, while Mitchell Starc claimed Test player-of-the-year honours and recent Test debutant Hilton Cartwright took the prestigious Bradman young cricketer-of-the-year crown.
![Winner: David Warner arrives at The Star with wife Candice Warner for the Allan Border Medal ceremony.](/web/20170125190602im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/x/7/m/z/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtx7nw.png/1485177950802.jpg)
Starc became the first bowler in nine years to win the Test player-of-the-year award, his 52 wickets in nine matches at 24.29 underpinning a fine 12 months with the ball. He took more Test wickets than Josh Hazlewood (48) and Nathan Lyon (43) who both played two more Tests.
But the night belonged to Warner. His ODI player-of-the-year award made him only the sixth man to have won an AB Medal along with the Test and one-day crowns. The hard-hitting New South Welshman peeled off 2420 international runs across the three forms of the game during the voting period, including nine hundreds, at an average of 46.54. Only Smith boasted a higher batting average over the past 12 months, after his 2489 runs at 52.96, including seven hundreds and a further 14 half-centuries.
"It's an honour and a privilege, the great players that have won this before me, it's amazing to follow in their footsteps," Warner said.
"I played with a couple, I've watched a lot of them on TV. It's fantastic to be a part of that group. As we all do as cricketers, we don't play the game to earn the accolades like this. It's about going out there and winning and making sure we've got the support of our fans and making sure cricket in Australia is the number one sport and headlining around the world that Australia is on the radar and we can keep continuing to strive for number one in all three formats."
![Over the moon: Warner's century against Pakistan on Sunday was his fifth of the home summer.](/web/20170125190602im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/w/g/k/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtx7nw.png/1485177950802.jpg)
Warner and Smith scored 16 of the 29 centuries scored by Australian batsmen at international level during the voting period, with only Usman Khawaja and recent Test debutant Peter Handscomb also scoring multiple tons in the last 12 months.
After a rough patch of form midway through 2016, Warner bounced back with a superb summer notching two Test tons and three ODI hundreds in Australia.
"I didn't really feel out of form at all this summer," Warner said.
"I was crunching them in the nets then always getting a poor dismissal or I was a bit unlucky. And that's the game. I walked off with a smile.
"I probably threw the toys out of the cot in Sri Lanka. I learned a lot about myself in Sri Lanka and that helped me coming towards this summer. I knew a big one was around the corner.
"I was disappointing in Perth. The way I got out was ugly, but if I had my time again, I'd still be playing the same shot and hopefully it'll go for four.
"You look at the last couple of games against Pakistan, I really nailed it. To be in this form in the one-day cricket and now Test matches, leading into India, it's a great thing for myself personally and for us as a team."
Australian captain Meg Lanning claimed the Belinda Clark Award for the third time in four years after scoring 1100 runs for the Southern Stars, and also took out domestic player of the year honours.
"I'm pretty surprised to be honest to win the Belinda Clark Award, I thought Ellyse Perry would win it," Lanning said.
"Hugely honoured to win the award, Belinda Clark's such an amazing cricketer and person for cricket.
"Women's cricket has improved a lot over the past five years, not only in the standard of play but also the coverage we're getting. It's certainly an exciting time for women's cricket, young girls coming through have got so many more opportunities now."
HONOUR ROLL
Allan Border Medal: David Warner
Belinda Clark Award: Meg Lanning
Test Player of the Year (male): Mitchell Starc
ODI Player of the Year (male): David Warner
International T20 Player of the Year: Shane Watson
Domestic Player of the Year (male): Cameron White
Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year: Hilton Cartwright
Domestic Player of the Year (female): Meg Lanning
Betty Wilson Young Cricketer of the Year: Sophie Molineux
Australian Cricket Hall of Fame inductees: Betty Wilson, Matthew Hayden, David Boon
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