Shaun Marsh and Elyse Villani take Australian domestic awards

Shaun Marsh has made it back-to-back male domestic player of the year titles at the Cricket Australia awards with Elyse Villani named the female player of the year. Will Sutherland and Hannah Darlington took the respective young cricketer titles.

The voting period of the awards is December 11, 2019 to December 9, 2020. For the men that takes in last season's BBL, the latter part of last season's Sheffield Shield and the first part of this season, which was played in an Adelaide hub, and for the women that latter part of last season's WNCL and this season's WBBL.

During that period Marsh scored 1058 across all formats for Western Australia and Melbourne Renegades. That is split as 609 runs at 55.36 in the Sheffield Shield, which included three centuries earlier this season, and 449 runs in the BBL.

He is the fourth player to win the award in multiple years after Darren Lehmann, Michael Klinger and Cameron White.

Villani's award comes after she lost her place in the Australia team in early 2019 and further emphasises the depth on offer. She made 360 runs at 27.69 and a strike-rate of 120.80 in Melbourne Stars' WBBL campaign, forming a strong opening pairing with Meg Lanning, in which they reached the final before defeat against Sydney Thunder. That followed a strong finished to the 2019-2020 WNCL season for Victoria where she averaged over 50.

"To be voted by them is a huge honour and something I don't really take lightly," she said. "When my career does come to an end one day, I know I'm going to look back on it really fondly because it's such a huge honour to be thought of by all the girls.

"Player voted awards are so special because it really highlights the respect that players have for one another and I know that's something the girls really value."

Sutherland, who plays for Victoria and Melbourne Renegades, reached Australia A level this season when he faced India at the SCG. He took a career-best Sheffield Shield return of 6 for 67 against South Australia late last season.

"They are strong competitions we have been playing in in the Sheffield Shield and Big Bash with a lot of good young cricketers coming through, so to get that recognition is pretty exciting for me at this point of my career," he said.

Meanwhile, Darlington continued to show herself as one of the most promising young bowlers in Australia by excelling in the Thunder's WBBL-winning campaign, especially standing out at the death, taking 19 wickets with an economy rate of 6.19.