Steketee, Hinkley Receive Accolades
Australian pace bowling contender Mark Steketee and rising Queensland Fire batter Mikayla Hinkley have swept the major honours at tonight’s Queensland Cricket Awards Dinner at the Royal International Convention Centre.
Steketee claimed three awards, including the prestigious Ian Healy Trophy, while Hinkley received her first Queensland Fire Player of the Year award, in the process becoming the first Indigenous player to accept the honour.
Steketee was the Queensland Sheffield Shield Player of the Year and the Bulls Players’ Player, with Matthew Renshaw taking out the Marsh One Day Player of the Year award.
It was the second time Steketee has won the Ian Healy Trophy, with his previous success coming in 2019-20.
Steketee, who is currently playing county cricket in the UK for Essex, was called into the Australian squad for the recent tour of Pakistan after being a squad member during the Ashes series last season.
The Bulls pace spearhead finished with 32 wickets at 17.93 to be the leading wicket-taker in the Marsh Sheffield Shield competition.
Renshaw, who is also playing in England with Somerset, was similarly effective in the limited overs format, with 377 runs at 75.40 from six games. His efforts earned a call-up as a replacement player for the limited overs leg of the Pakistan tour.
It was a breakthrough season for Hinkley, who stepped up in the absence of Australian players Jess Jonassen, Grace Harris, Georgia Redmayne and Beth Mooney in the Women’s National Cricket League.
She was the Fire’s leading runs-scorer with 319 runs at 53.16. That return included her maiden WNCL century, a superb 121 not out against WA where she was the only Fire batter to go past 20 runs, as Queensland chased down 208
Hinkley, who traces her Indigenous heritage to the Kunja people of western Queensland, also played a notable role in assisting with the creation of the Brisbane Heat’s inaugural Indigenous playing strip that was unveiled during the summer.
She joined with local Indigenous artist Delores ‘Delly’ McDonald to create the designs for the shirt which was worn by the WBBL and BBL teams during their respective First Nations round matches.
Pace bowler Holly Ferling received the Fire Players’ Player award after noteworthy efforts on and off the field as she personified the ‘shirt first’ commitment espoused by the Queensland squad this summer.
Ferling, 26, also contributed some outstanding spells in the final stages of the WNCL as she took on the senior pace bowling role, which also featured mentoring and guiding younger and more inexperienced teammates.
The Brisbane Heat MVP awards went to newly-recalled Australian allrounder Grace Harris and first-season English batsman Ben Duckett.
Harris scored 420 runs at a strike-rate of 123.2 to subsequently earn a recall to the Australian squad after a six-year absence for their World Cup triumph in New Zealand last month. Duckett was the leading runs-scorer for the Heat and produced three half centuries including a top score of 78 and several key partnerships during the BBL.
Two regional players were also recognised on the night.
Damaging Cairns allrounder Jake Roach and teenaged Emerald pace bowler Bonnie Berry were the male and female Country Players of the Year.
Berry was the second leading wicket-taker for the Queensland Under-19 women’s team that won the National championships earlier this month.
Roach was a member of the Queensland Country Brahmans which were undefeated in the recent interstate challenge series in Albury, with Roach finishing as the leading wicket-taker.
The QC Volunteer of the Year award was presented to Beaudesert’s Steve Larrescy in appreciation of he and his family’s significant contribution to cricket in the area.
He was joined at the dinner by other members of ‘Kaspa’s Crew’, the Queensland Cricket Volunteer Recognition Program that came into existence 19 seasons ago when Queensland and Australian pace bowler Michael Kasprowicz agreed to be the face of the inaugural initiative.
2021-22 Queensland Cricket Awards
Ian Healy Trophy – Mark Steketee
Queensland Fire Player of the Year – Mikayla Hinkley
Marsh Sheffield Shield Player of the Year – Mark Steketee
Marsh One Day Cup Player of the Year – Matthew Renshaw
Queensland Fire Player’s Player – Holly Ferling
Queensland Bulls Player’s Player – Mark Steketee
Brisbane Heat WBBL MVP – Grace Harris
Brisbane Heat BBL MVP – Ben Duckett
Country Player of the Year (male) – Jake Roach
Country Player of the Year (female) – Bonnie Berry
Queensland Cricket Volunteer of the Year – Steve Larrescy, (Beaudesert, SEQ)
Graham Dixon Award for Staff Achievement – Antony Stewart
2021-22 Volunteers of the Year – Kaspa’s Crew
Steve Larrescy SEQ
Peter Huey CFN
Alex Dickinson NQ
Wayne Neilson MW
Michelle Harvey CQ
Justin Geldard WB
Jeremy Schultz SC
Darren Wheeler BN
Penny Ford BEARS
Mick Varidel MSW
Angus Rathie DD&SWQ
Lisa Wells GC
