Shane Watson has become the second back-to-back winner in the history of Australian cricket's top annual individual award, the Allan Border medal, capping a golden night and a banner year for the all-rounder.
Watson not only joined Test and one-day captain Ricky Ponting in that exclusive club, he also joined Ponting as the only men to have been named the nation's best Test and one-day international player in the same year.
Four-time Border Medallist Ponting achieved that feat in 2007, when he also became the first back-to-back winner of the top prize in the medal's 12-year history.
Watson was last year named Australia's best one-day international player, before this year combining it with his first Test award.
He narrowly missed a clean sweep, finishing joint runner-up with Cameron White behind David Hussey in the inaugural Twenty20 award, with Hussey two votes clear.
Watson's achievement in all three forms made him the winner by a staggering margin, when the votes of players, umpires and media were combined.
Watson polled 295 votes in the Border Medal, well ahead of batsman Mike Hussey (195), who edged out paceman Mitchell Johnson (193) for second place.
Watson thanked his family and teammates, but also offered special thanks to Cricket Australia's medical staff, having faced a constant battle with injury through the early years of his international career before finally getting a consistent run in the past two years.
"To be able to do it for a couple of years now without getting too many injuries is something I never thought was going to happen," Watson said.
His move into the Test opening position in July 2009 was the turning point of his international career, he said.
Watson's win is a testament to his ability not only to persevere through numerous injury setbacks, but to now handle an extreme workload, opening the batting in all three forms of the game as well as bowling.
He played more matches in total in the game's three forms (46) than any other Australian team member over the voting period, which ran from February 14, 2010 to February 2 this year.
Despite scoring only one Test century for the year, just the second of his career, he scored more runs than any other Australian in both Test and one-day cricket and was second only to David Warner in T20s.
He was also fourth on the Test wicket-takers' list and third in the one-dayers.
In other awards, NSW batsman Usman Khawaja was named state player of the year, Blues paceman Trent Copeland the young player of the year and South Australian all-rounder Shelley Nitschke the women's international player of the year.
Former Australian captain Mark Taylor and former all-rounder Doug Walters were inducted into the Australian cricket Hall of Fame.
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