Blackwell has been part of the women's cricket team in Australia from when it was an amateur sport until 2018, when she announced her retirement at the age of 35.

The new accolade, named the Alex Blackwell Award, celebrates members of the community who uphold the values of promoting and developing women's sport.

This will be the newest award to be presented at the UNSW Blues and Sports Awards Dinner.

"UNSW has shown great commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion through its sporting programmes," said Blackwell.

"The launch of the Active Women Strategy showed a strong dedication to the pursuit of fairness in sport and this new award will be a key part of recognising the champions in our community.

"It's a great honour to have the award named after me and I look forward to celebrating the first winner of the Alex Blackwell Award in March."

Blackwell is also an advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex rights, coming out publicly in 2013 to help eliminate homophobia in sport.

She has also played a key role in the launch of Cricket Australia's trans and gender diverse inclusion policy in 2019.

In 2018, she became the first woman to be elected on the Board of Cricket NSW in its 159-year history and in 2019 was given an honorary doctorate by UNSW for her work fighting for equality.

The UNSW Blues and Sports Awards Dinner could not be held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the 2021 edition is set to celebrate the achievements of university sports stars from both 2019 and 2020.