Photo Credit: Sydney Thunder
Heather Knight, Alex Hales and Rachael Haynes win top gongs
English duo Heather Knight and Alex Hales have taken home Sydney Thunder’s top gongs at the annual Cricket NSW Awards held at Doltone House in Sydney on Friday night.
WBBL|06 title-winning skipper Rachael Haynes was also amongst the high profile award winners, claiming the prestigious Belinda Clark Medal, presented to the NSW player awarded the most votes across the WNCL and WBBL Tournaments by their peers, coaches and match officials.
The evergreen batter also took home the WNCL Player of the Tournament for her performance for the NSW Breakers.
Knight took out the Alex Blackwell Medal for Thunder’s WBBL Player of the Tournament, while Hales was awarded the Mike Hussey Medal for Thunder’s BBL Player of the Tournament.
In a season that saw Trevor Griffin’s Thunder squad win the club’s second ever WBBL crown, Knight polled 21.5 points to edge out rising star Hannah Darlington (19 points), Shabnim Ismail (16.5) and Sammy-Jo Johnson (16).
In the men’s tournament, Hales’ stellar season saw him amass 26 points, to win ahead of Brendan Doggett (15.5), Usman Khawaja (10.5) and Sam Billings (9).
Darlington, who this summer became NSW’s youngest ever captain at just 19 years and 31 days, was recognised as Cricket Australia’s Lord’s Taverners Indigenous Cricketer of the Year.
Darlington’s Thunder and Breakers teammate Anika Learoyd was named NSW Country Player of the Year.
The Sydney Thunder is an Australian professional cricket team competing in the Big Bash League (BBL). Based at Sydney Showground Stadium, the Thunder, along with the Sydney Sixers, succeeded the New South Wales Blues from the defunct KFC Twenty20 Big Bash.
