Journalists Patrick O'Meara and Laura Poole attended the awards ceremony at Crown Casino yesterday.

O'Meara accepted the Vic Spirit Award for outstanding coverage of women's cricket.

O'Meara wrote a double page profile on seven Wimmera girls selected to represent the Western Waves in the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Pathway Championships in Melbourne in January.

"Women's cricket is important to the Wimmera and we look forward to covering it in the future," he said.

The Mail-Times was also highly commended in the Victorian Premier Cricket Award.

O'Meara and Poole were recognised for their coverage of the Victorian Premier Cricket country round match between Footscray Edgewater and Ringwood in January.

A cricket bat signed by the Victorian Bushrangers was part of the prize.

Steven Milne, Fairfax Community Newspapers, won the Premier Cricket Award.

Other major award winners were Peter Hanlon from The Age and Michael Horan, Herald Sun.

The Buloke Times won the Country Award for its promotion and coverage of a charity Twenty20 match to raise money for Rich Avon cricketer Tim Crowe, who suffers a degenerative eye condition.

•The Wimmera Mail-Times also won a Cricket Victoria award last year for Megan Hustwaite's coverage of the Wimmera cricket grand final.