Bracewell farce forces Australia to ditch text vote

SYDNEY,  (Reuters) – Cricket Australia will revert to a panel of experts to decide man of the match awards after Doug Bracewell failed to win a public vote despite bowling New Zealand to victory in a test match in Hobart on Monday.

Bracewell’s six wickets for 40 runs in Australia’s second innings were unarguably decisive in the Black Caps winning their first test match since 1985 across the Tasman Sea.

The 21-year-old still, however, lost out heavily to Australia opener David Warner, who made an unbeaten 123, in a vote conducted among subscribers of a mobile telephone company which is a major sponsor of Australian cricket.

“We were always running a bit of a trial for these two tests with those man of the match awards but we will definitely revert back to an expert’s choice for that decision about man of the match,” Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland told Melbourne’s Radio 3AW  yesterday.