Cricket fans were left more than a little confused on Monday night when the Test and ODI player of the year gongs weren’t part of the TV coverage of the Australian Cricket Awards. For the second year running, the Test and ODI awards were announced before the TV coverage began and only revealed on social media.

It meant the majority of viewers were unaware that Josh Hazlewood won the men’s Test player of the year, while Travis Head and Ashleigh Gardner took out the men’s and women’s ODI gongs. Head doubled up with the prestigious Allan Border Medal, while Annabel Sutherland won the Belinda Clark award.

But the Test and ODI winners were left out of the TV coverage shown on Channel 7 and Fox Sports/Kayo. The T20 players of the year (Adam Zampa and Beth Mooney) were part of the coverage, as were the BBL and WBBL awards (Glenn Maxwell and Cooper Connolly in the men’s and Ellyse Perry and Jess Jonassen in the women’s).

The Hall of Fame inductees were included in the coverage, with Michael Bevan and Christina Matthews giving speeches (although Michael Clarke couldn’t attend). Cameron Green also gave a brilliant speech after winning the Community impact award for raising awareness for kidney disease.

Test and ODI awards not part of TV coverage

But the Bradman young men’s cricketer of the year (Sam Konstas), the Betty Wilson young women’s cricketer of the year (Chloe Ainsworth) and the domestic players of the year (Beau Webster and Georgia Voll) were also not shown to TV viewers. It was particularly galling for Hazlewood’s Test player of the year nod not to be shown given it’s named after late Aussie legend Shane Warne.

Up until last year, all the aforementioned awards were part of the TV coverage. But on Monday night the reduced program led to confusion on social media when fans learned of the Test and ODI winners. Many thought spoilers had been released because they hadn’t seen those awards announced on the TV yet, only to find out later they weren’t part of the TV coverage.

Hazlewood and Head weren’t in attendance anyway, with the latter in Sri Lanka and having to accept the Allan Border Medal and deliver a pre-recorded speech 8000km away. But Gardner was in attendance, and TV viewers weren’t shown her acceptance speech after claiming the women’s ODI gong.

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Cricket Australia explains change to awards coverage

Cricket Australia’s head of events Joel Morrison previously told The Age they made the changes to make the broadcast more “appealing”. He said: “The format last year was really appealing and received universally well by broadcasters, so we think we’ve found a recipe.

“There’s three formats of the game. International and domestic, men’s and women’s competitions and teams. So being able to celebrate all of the cricket summer is different from celebrating one award or one league.”

Whether the Test and ODI awards will continue to be cut from the coverage remains to be seen. But if the confusion of fans is anything to go by, Cricket Australia might need to backflip.