Steve Smith wins third Allan Border Medal of his career


Former Australia captain Steve Smith was named as the recipient of this year’s Allan Border Medal in the annual Cricket Australia Award ceremony. This is the third time that Smith, 31, has been awarded the highest honours for a male cricketer in Australia. 

The ceremonies were not hosted with an in-person gathering, rather broadcasted all over the country through TV. Beth Mooney, the attacking Australian women’s team opener was awarded the Belinda Clark Award, the highest cricketing honour for a female Australian cricketer. 

This was the first-ever time that Mooney, the 27-year-old Queensland Women team member has received the highest Australian cricketing honours. 

"An award as prestigious and highly regarded as this, it doesn’t matter how you do it, it’s still a pretty surreal thing to have achieved and something I haven’t taken lightly," Mooney was quoted as saying to reporters after receiving the news of the award sitting at her Gold Coast home. 

Smith, though couldn’t believe that he would be awarded the highest honour, especially after the great performances from Marnus Labuschagne and Test vice-captain Pat Cummins. 

"It's a great thrill, plenty of hard work has gone into it (but) I didn't expect it; I thought Marnus (Labuschagne) or Pat Cummins were the front runners because they both had exceptional years,” he said. 

"I didn't feel I had the biggest Test summer, which normally holds the most votes. I'm just really honoured to have won my third AB Medal and hopefully, I can keep producing results for Australia," added Smith, who was also awarded the ODI Player of the Year Award. 

In other awards, Cummins claimed the Men’ Test player of the year award while Ashton Agar, who won Man of the Series in a T20I series against South Africa, in South Africa was awarded the Men’s T20I Player of the Year. 

While Beth Monney won the Female T20i player of the year Award Rachael Haynes was voted as the Female ODI cricketer of the year. In the domestic awards, Shaun Marsh who was the only one to score more than 1000 runs combined in two different formats of the game in a covid-19 curtailed season was awarded the Male Domestic Player of the Year award, the second time in a row. 

Elyse Villani was the Female Domestic Player of the Year, while Will Sutherland won the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year. Apart from these awards, three cricketers were also inducted in the Hall of Fame including Johnny Mullagh, Merv Hughes and former Australian women all-rounder Lisa Sthalekar.

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IPL 2021: Know who owns your favourite team

The Indian Premier League mini auctions are slated to take place on February 18. The franchises have released the names of the players they have retained and let go. They would be seeking to pick the players who would fill the voids easily. But here we take a look at the co-owners of all the franchise teams. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) The Chennai Super Kings who are the second most successful franchises with three winning triumphs in the IPL is owned by Chennai Super Kings Cricket Limited. The franchise was earlier owned by Indian Cements from 2008 to 2014. But a conflict of issue, the ownership of the team was shifted to a different entity as CSK cricket ltd. Dhoni has been the captain of the side since the starting. The franchise was one of the two teams apart from Rajasthan Royals who was banned for two years for a spot-fixing scandal. Mumbai Indians (MI) Mumbai Indians who is the most successful IPL team with five trophies to their name is owned by Reliance Industries since the inaugural IPL edition in 2008. Akash Ambani who is the son of Mukesh Ambani is often seen cheering for the team with his mother Nita Ambani. MI are the defending champions of the IPL after they defeated Delhi Capitals in the final of 2020 edition. Their fortunes change after Rohit Sharma was handed the captaincy of the side. Delhi Capitals The Shreyas Iyer-led Delhi Capitals is co-owned by GMR group and the JSW group. Both of them share equal stakes in the franchise. The GMR group sold its 50% share to the JSW group. Parth Jindal who is the managing director of JSW group is the chairman of DC. DC had the best performance in the 2020 season after they reached the final of the tournament but lost to MI. The Delhi franchise was earlier known as the Delhi Capitals but it was in 2018 when they changed their name to Delhi Capitals. Co-owner and chairman Parth Jindal said, "Delhi is the power centre of the country, it is the capital, therefore the name Delhi Capitals." Co-owner Kiran Kumar Grandhi said, "The new name symbolizes Delhi’s identity and just like the city, we are aiming to be the centre of all action going forward." Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Probably one of the most exciting franchises, RCB’s had United Spirits as the parent company to own the franchise. However, Vijay Mallya stepped down as he director of Royal Challengers Sports Private Limited (RCSPL) in 2016. RCB had one of the finest tournaments in 2016 editions after they reached the IPL final but suffered a defeat at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad. Captain Virat Kohli notched up 973 runs in that particular tournament that included 4 tons. RCB have played three IPL finals till date but haven’t been able to lift the trophy. Rajasthan Royals (RR) Rajasthan Royals was one of the two teams to face the suspension from the IPL for two years after they were involved in a spot-fixing scandal. The Rajasthan franchise is now owned by a group of co-owners. Amisha Hathiramani, the daughter of Suresh Chellaram, owns 44.2% shares, Manoj Badale owns 32.4% stakes. Former Australia bowler Shane Warne owns 3% share along with Lachlan Murdoch who owns 11.7% shares in the franchise. The Royals won the inaugural IPL after beating CSK in the final. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) The two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders is owned by Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment company and Mehta Group. While SRK’s company has 55% stake while Mehta Group’s stakes are 45%. The Mehta group is headed by Juhi Chawala and her husband Jay Mehta. KKR started off their IPL campaign with a bang when Brendon McCullum smacked a century against RCB in the first match of the tournament in 2008. They had the likes of Ricky Ponting, Sourav Ganguly and Shoaib Akhtar in the inaugural season but the tables turned for the Kolkata-based franchise only when Gautam Gambhir was handed over the captaincy. Gambhir led the side to title wins in 2012 and 2014 editions respectively. Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) The Punjab based franchise KXIP is majorly owned by Dabur’s Mohit Burman with maximum shares (46%) in the franchise. Ness Wadia, Bollywood actress Priety Zinta own 23% share each while Karan Paul owns 8% share of the franchise. KXIP has failed to win any IPL franchises despite having big names in their ranks over the years. Former India opener Virender Sehwag has donned the KXIP jersey while hard-hitting batsman Chris Gayle is presently a part of the side. Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) SRH is owned by Sun TV Network since IPL 2013. The Hyderabad franchise replaced 2009 winners Deccan Chargers after the 2012 edition. Sunrisers is probably one team that has been pretty balanced with their line up. The franchise is led by Australia’s David Warner. They even lifted the cup in 2016 edition beating RCB in the final. SRH have retained New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson for upcoming IPL.

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Very kind of Virat Kohli to help me out: Joe Root

England skipper Joe Root has praised his counterpart Virat Kohli for helping him out while he was in some pain because of cramps. Root hailed Kohli’s “sportsmanship”. “Yeah, I am ready for more tomorrow…hopefully get back, a bit frustrating, very kind of Virat (Kohli) to help me out (with cramps), good sportsmanship from him…It’s just like a long day and then after a few overs I get some fluids and cooled down.” England have already scored 263/3 on Day 1 of the the first Test in Chennai. The captain is of the opinion that the visitors would look to post somewhere between 600-700. “We have got to look and try and get as many as we can 600-700 if we can, really trying to make most of the first innings make it good and those four overs trying to work quickly.” “So if we can bat into whole of tomorrow or maybe day three then things could speed up quite quickly for us and you never know what can happen for that point onwards…” The English captain has been in prime form. He scored back to back tons in Sri Lanka and followed it with a hundred against India in the first Test. Talking about his own form Root said, “Different challenges, I think in Sri Lanka, there was obviously a little bit more lateral moment, more spin, while here it was more trying to counter the bounce initially against the spinners and obviously challenging reverse swing from the seamers,” he said. “So it was very different and it’s always difficult to try put two against each other,” he added. Root is playing his 100th Test. The right-handed batsman said that it is a special feeling. “Playing the 100th Test was special and I mean coming in with some good form and I need to make sure I cash in on…Over the course of my career I’ve not always gone to make really big scores, so for me to be going and doing that currently is really pleasing…” “And I keep getting myself in positions to make big hundreds and I have got to keep taking them and we’re going to win more games if I’m doing that and so hopefully I can kick on tomorrow personally but most importantly we can have a bat tomorrow and we can be in a strong position in this game.”