Cricket Australia renames Test Player of the Year award in honour of Shane Warne
Image credit: The Federal News
On Monday, December 26, 2022, the Australian Cricket Board stated that Shane Warne will now be honoured with a new moniker for the nation’s men’s Test Player of the Year award.
The Australian Cricket Awards will each year include the presentation of the Shane Warne Men’s Test Player of the Year trophy.
In honour of Warne, the award has been renamed. The announcement was made during the Boxing Day Test against South Africa by Cricket Australia (CA) CEO Nick Hockley and Australian Cricketers’ Association CEO Todd Greenber. In Thailand earlier this year, he reportedly passed away from a heart attack.
As one of Australia’s all-time greats, Hockley said, “It is appropriate that we recognise Shane’s outstanding contribution to Test cricket by naming this award in his honour in perpetuity.”
“Shane was a proud supporter of Test cricket, and you only had to look around at all the supporters that came out to the MCG in their floppy hats and zinc on Boxing Day to realise what a deep impact he had on the game,” said one fan. Warne received the honour once, in 2006, for his record-breaking 40 wickets in 2005.
The Australian Cricket Awards’ announcement is scheduled for January 30.
“I’m honoured that the ACA, along with Cricket Australia, is able to recognise the extraordinary effect Shane made on Test cricket with an award named in his honour,” said Greenberg.
He was a once-in-a-generation player, but he was also very much a man who appreciated the crucial contribution that each player made to Australian cricket.
Nobody knew how to put on a show quite like Warnie, especially here at the MCG, he said, “and once they came, he never knocked back an opportunity to promote and grow the game.”