Annabel Sutherland has become just the fifth woman to win consecutive Belinda Clark Awards, following a year where the star allrounder continued her dominance in the green and gold.
Sutherland was crowned Australia’s best women’s cricketer from the past year at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday, polling 77 votes to win by three ahead of two-time winner Beth Mooney.
Conflicting schedules between the men’s and women’s teams have prevented the Australian Cricket Awards from being held in their traditional format this season, and Sutherland accepted her award from Clark in somewhat unusual circumstances, with a presentation held in the SCG Members’ Long Bar ahead of Australia’s training session on Saturday evening.
Sutherland also claimed the ODI Player of the Year award, while Beth Mooney took out the T20I Player of the Year award on a countback having tied with opening partner Georgia Voll.
2026 Belinda Clark Award voting
Winner: Annabel Sutherland – 77 votes
2nd: Beth Mooney – 74 votes
3rd: Alana King – 55 votes
4th: Ashleigh Gardner – 54 votes
5th: Phoebe Litchfield – 42 votes
Australia played just three T20Is in the voting period, and Mooney was named player of that series in New Zealand after scoring 166 runs at an average of 83 and strike-rate of 167.
It is the fourth time Mooney has won the T20I award since its inception in 2019, in a testament to her remarkable consistency with the bat in the shortest format.
The Aussies played 13 white-ball matches across the voting period – all of those away from home – with those three T20Is followed by 10 one-dayers in September and October encompassing the bilateral series in India and the ODI World Cup.
Sutherland, one of Australia’s most reliable players during the World Cup, was Australia’s leading wicket-taker in the 50-over format, finishing as the tournament’s second-highest wicket taker with 17 at 15.82 while contributing a high score of 98no against England.
Across all formats, Sutherland took 27 wickets at an average of 15.63 alongside 250 runs at an average of 41.66.
The Victorian is the fifth woman to win consecutive Belinda Clark Awards, after Karen Rolton (2002-03, 2005-06), Lisa Sthalekar (2007-08), Shelley Nitschke (2009-12) and Meg Lanning (2014-15).
“It’s pretty special to be alongside a few of those names … it’s pretty cool and very surreal at the moment,” Sutherland said.
“I’m super grateful to receive the award from ‘BC’ (Clark), and just grateful and nice to know that I’ve contributed to the team’s success over the last 12 months.”
All the 2026 women’s awards winners
Belinda Clark Award: Annabel Sutherland
ODI Player of the Year: Annabel Sutherland
T20I Player of the Year: Beth Mooney
Domestic Player of the Year: Nicola Carey
Betty Wilson Young Cricketer of the Year: Caoimhe Bray
Community Impact Award: Josie Dooley
The 24-year-old also conceded she had some conflicting feelings around the individual honour given the lingering disappointment of Australia’s World Cup semi-final defeat.
“It’s hard to go past the way the World Cup finished, in terms of where the team sat in the result we got there,” she added. “I put a lot of emphasis on that World Cup … and over the last couple of years that was the focus in my preparation, on how was I going to contribute to wins for Australia.
“I felt like I was able to do that with the ball throughout that tournament, and in bits with the bat too.
“But it’s a tough one to reflect on given the way the World Cup finished up.”
Mooney also shone at the ODI World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, pulling Australia out of deep trouble with a century against Pakistan and finishing the tournament as her team’s top run scorer.
Alana King, who took an Australian record 7-18 against South Africa, also enjoyed a stellar World Cup campaign to finish third in the voting for the Belinda Clark Award.
The awards for international cricket are based on votes from players, umpires and media on a 3-2-1 basis from each match.
Votes are weighted to decide the Belinda Clark Award winner, with those polled in Test matches worth twice as much as from ODI fixtures, and three times more than T20I votes.
If players are tied for first place, a countback occurs with the player who received the most ‘three votes’ getting the nod.
Australia did not play a Test in the 2026 voting period.
NRMA Insurance Australia v India Multi-Format Series
Australia T20I squad: Sophie Molineux (c), Ashleigh Gardner (vc), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Kim Garth, Grace Harris, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham
India T20I squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Renuka Thakur, Sree Charani, Vaishnavi Sharma, Kranti Gaud, Sneh Rana, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Uma Chetry, Arundhati Reddy, Amanjot Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Bharti Fulmali, Shreyanka Patil
February 15: First T20, SCG, 7:15pm AEDT
February 19: Second T20, Manuka Oval, Canberra, 7:15pm AEDT
February 21: Third T20, Adelaide Oval, 7:15pm AEDT
Australia ODI squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Sophie Molineux (vc), Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Ellyse Perry, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham
India ODI squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Renuka Thakur, Sree Charani, Vaishnavi Sharma, Kranti Gaud, Sneh Rana, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Kashvee Gautam, Amanjot Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Uma Chetry, Harleen Deol
February 24: First ODI, Allan Border Field, Brisbane, 2:50pm AEDT
February 27: Second ODI, Bellerive Oval, Hobart, 2:50pm AEDT
March 1: Third ODI, Bellerive Oval, Hobart, 2:50pm AEDT
Australia Test squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Sophie Molineux (vc), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Lucy Hamilton, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Ellyse Perry, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham
India Test squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma, Renuka Singh, Sneh Rana, Amanjot Kaur, Uma Chetry, Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Kranti Gaud, Vaishnavi Sharma, Sayali Satghare
March 6-9: Test match, WACA Ground, 4:20pm AEDT (D/N)
