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Shaun Marsh has won the Australian Domestic Player of the Year award for the second straight season, the evergreen veteran continuing his outstanding performances for Western Australia and the Melbourne Renegades.
Marsh, at 37, was the only man to score more than 1,000 runs across the two domestic formats played in the voting period for his latest award, which ran between 11 December 2019 and 9 December 2020.
Marsh hit 1,058 runs – comprising of the 449 for the Melbourne Renegades in BBL|09 before adding 124 at the backend of last summer's Marsh Sheffield Shield season before coronavirus ground the competition to a halt.
That was a disappointing end to the campaign for Western Australia, but Marsh started the new season in brilliant touch, hitting 485 in four Shield games this summer, with three centuries and an average of 97 again raising his name among those looking to plug holes in the Australian batting order.
Marsh becomes the first player since Michael Klinger in 2009 and 2010 to win the award in consecutive seasons, now setting his sights on breaking WA's Shield drought that extends back to 1998/99.
"It's something that really drives me," Marsh said.
"And not just me, but every player in WA cricket. It's the pinnacle for us. We'd all dearly want one, and something we're really working hard to try and achieve.
"Everyone's very aware of it but we don't want to be just focussing on that. If you focus too much on that you can lose focus on what's actually important, and that's playing well in each and every game to try and get us there at the backend of the season.
"It's important to focus on each game and stay in the present.
"I know I'm nearer the end of my career than the start but I haven't once thought about retirement. Once you start thinking about it, you're probably already there.
"At this stage I just want to keep playing well for WA. I've got another year (contracted) with WA and we'll see where that gets me.
"I just want to keep moving this group in WA forward. I'm enjoying that role at the moment."
In other award announcements on Friday young Victorian all-rounder Will Sutherland was awarded the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year award, while Ellyse Villani was awarded the female Domestic Player of the Year award, Hannah Darlington the female Young Cricketer of the Year.
Former Australian all-rounder Lisa Sthalekar was inducted to the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, joining Merv Hughes who had been inducted on Wednesday.
In 185 matches across all formats, the off-spinning allrounder scored a total of 3,913 runs and took 229 wickets.
IMAGE: Cricket Australia.