FORMER Hampshire cricketer Michael Clarke has been named as Australia's cricketer of the year.

The 23-year-old, pictured above, was awarded the prestigious Allan Border medal and just missed out on the one-day player of the year award, which went to Andrew Symonds.

Clarke follows in the footsteps of Steve Waugh, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting as the sixth annual winner.

Damien Martyn won the Test player of the year award and Andy Bichel the State player of the year.

Clarke, who won the award in his first full year of international cricket, scored centuries on home and away debut Tests after spending the English county season playing for Hampshire.

He said: "The last 12 months has been unbelievable for me. 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."

The medal is decided by players, umpires and the media, who vote on all of Australia's Test and one-day international cricket matches over the past year.

Meanwhile, Hampshire batsman Kevin Pietersen is set to face another hostile reception from his countrymen tomorrow, when England take on South Africa in the second one-day international of the seven-match series in Bloemfontein.

Pietersen scored 22 not out as England won in Johannesburg on the Duckworth-Lewis method on Sunday.