Watson becomes second man after Ponting to win back-to-back Allan Border Medals

SYDNEY - Australian all-rounder Shane Watson has become the second man after Ricky Ponting to pick up the coveted Allan Border Medal two years running.

First awarded in 2000, the medal is named after former Australian captain Allan Border, and recognizes the most outstanding Australian cricketer of the past season as voted by his peers, the media and umpires.

Watson, who had won last year’s Allan Border Medal, also won his second consecutive one-day international player of the year award and his first Test player of the year award.

He was also runner-up to David Hussey in the Twenty20 award, which was given for the first time.

Watson polled 295 votes in the Allan Border Medal, which combines votes for every match in all three formats that Australia has played in the year to February 2.

He finished 100 votes clear of Michael Hussey (195) and Mitchell Johnson (193) in the medal voting.

Australia played 11 Tests, 25 ODIs and 14 Twenty20 matches in that time.

The medal is based on player, umpire and media votes for the matches. Test votes have a greater weighting for each player’s Allan Border Medal total.

According to Fox Sports, 2010 has been the toughest period for Australian cricket and Watson has stood out with his all-round achievements.

He has scored 450 more runs than any of his teammates in the voting period.

The only query was his inability to turn his solid starts into big centuries. He passed 50 on 17 occasions but reached triple figures only twice. With the ball, he has made crucial breakthroughs for his captains and had a better average of all the bowlers apart from the impressive Ryan Harris. (ANI)