It’s barely a month since he switched allegiances to England.
But that hasn’t stopped Jake Lehmann from, somewhat ironically, scooping Cricket Australia men’s ‘Domestic Player of the Year’ award.
Speaking of his award on Tuesday, the 33-year-old described the honour as ‘a little bit of a shock’.
Melbourne-born Lehmann, a dual citizen and eldest son of former Australian player and coach Darren Lehmann, recently signed a two-year county deal with Hampshire as a local player under his British passport—in doing so ending his chances of playing for Australia under ICC regulations.
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It means the closest the left hand batsman ever came to full national selection was making the Australia A side back in 2016.
Lehmann received the peer-voted award having played a key role in South Australia’s victories in both the Sheffield Shield and One-Day Cup competitions last summer, capped by a century in the Shield Final win over Queensland that snapped the state’s 29-year first class title drought.
“Jake has been a fantastic contributor to South Australia’s recent success and is one of the players who helps make our domestic competitions the best in world cricket,” Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg said on announcement of the award.
Previous winners of Domestic Player of the Year include current Australian players Travis Head (2022), Michael Neser (2023) and Beau Webster (2025).
Lehmann’s father Darren also won the award in three consecutive years between 2000-2002.