THE changing face of Australian cricket will be apparent at tonight's Allan Border Medal count in Melbourne. In the wake of the Ashes defeat, the reigning Border Medallist, Michael Clarke, has been reduced to a one-day player only, so too the reigning Test player of the year, Damien Martyn.
Andrew Symonds holds the title of one-day player of the year but is ineligible in all categories this year, owing to a suspension incurred for a night on the town in Cardiff, a pursuit that would have been wholly endorsed by Australian teams of a bygone era.
Australia used 20 Test players and 25 one-day men in the 12 months until the voting period closed last night, but one constant of modern times looks as if it can be relied upon again. Ricky Ponting is poised to collect his second Border Medal in three years, after another superb year with the bat in both forms of the game.
Michael Hussey has burst onto the international scene in the voting period and should poll well. Matthew Hayden may finish surprisingly high, despite a torrid year in which he was dropped from the one-day side, having made a late charge through a superb home Test summer. Shane Warne has a strong chance of being named Test player of the year, but is compromised in the Border Medal count by the fact he no longer plays the short game.
Ponting, however, has excelled in both forms in the past year, and is a deserved favourite to add a second Border Medal to sit alongside his previous laurels as Test player of the year in 2003 and 2004, and ODI player of the year in 2002.
Ponting's 72 against South Africa yesterday ensured he finished as Australia's leading ODI scorer in the voting period, with 1137 at an average of 43.
Australia's captain played in all 15 relevant Tests and was again his country's most prolific batsman, with 1596 runs at 69, including seven hundreds and six half centuries.
Like Clarke last year, Ponting might not win either the Test or ODI awards tonight yet still take the Border Medal. Under the voting system, players were given 3-2-1 votes from several judges after each match. Since Australia played twice as many one-dayers as Tests, votes from the latter form of the game count double.
Warne could tip Ponting out in the Test category to claim what would almost perversely be only his second title in the seven-year history of these awards, alongside only the ODI player of the year in 2000. Warne took 93 Test wickets at just 22 during the voting period. Hayden should also figure prominently after 1425 Test runs at 52, including five centuries.
Ponting looks likely to have to also see a teammate take the ODI player award, with Hussey strongly fancied to take that title, and Brett Lee and Adam Gilchrist likely to be close to the lead.
But combining points from both versions of the game leaves Ponting a likely overall winner, with Hussey and Hayden likely to be among his nearest rivals.
Tonight's medal ceremony will also feature the induction of former Test captain and coach Bob Simpson and pre-World War I captain Monty Noble into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.
Noble, Wisden's Cricketer of the Year in 1900, played 42 Tests, taking 121 wickets at 25 runs apiece with his off-spin, and scoring 1997 runs at 30.
Simpson, who took Wisden's major award in 1965, played 62 Tests, scoring 4869 runs at 46 including 10 centuries, and taking 71 wickets with his leg-spinners at 42. As coach, he helped steer Australia from its bleakest period in the mid-1980s towards its past decade of dominance.
"It's a great honour. It's definitely the icing on the cake at the end of one's career," Simpson said yesterday.
- TREVOR MARSHALLSEA