01 February 2005	Tuesday	21 Zilhaj 1425

SYDNEY, Jan 31: Australia's new cricketing sensation Michael Clarke received the Allan Border medal on Monday as the country's best player over the past year.

Clarke won the award at a gala dinner in Melbourne ahead of batsman Damien Martyn and wicket keeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist in a poll of team mates, umpires and media.

Martyn was named Test player for the year and Andrew Symonds the best one-day player, just ahead of Clarke and Michael Kasprowicz. Discarded international bowler Andy Bichel was named as the leading player from the domestic interstate competition, while former Test wicket keeper Rod Marsh and the late Clem Hill were inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.

Glenn McGrath (2000), Steve Waugh (2001), Matthew Hayden (2002), Gilchrist (2003) and Ricky Ponting (2004) are previous winners of Australian cricket's most prestigious award.

At 23, Clarke became the youngest player to win it. He made his one-day international debut against England two years ago and his test debut less than four months ago.

Clarke made 151 on his test debut against India in Bangalore and also captured six wickets for nine runs in the same series. He scored a hundred in his first test on home soil against New Zealand and made two one-day hundreds in the voting period.

"The last 12 months has been un believe able for me," Clarke told reporters. "There's going to come times when I do not score runs and I'm not going to perform, I'm going to drop catches, I'm going to miss run-outs...so I think I just need to keep enjoying this special time."

Martyn scored 1,373 Test runs at an average of 59.70, including six centuries. Justin Langer was second despite finishing 2004 as the world's leading run scorer. -Reuters