Last year’s winner Sachith Pathirana of Trinity College

The year-end holidays are almost coming to an end and the 2008/09 inter-schools cricket season is just about to get into its top gear. Now the team building and third term position experiments are over and over to the real thing.
Once the real thing is on another perennial tradition in school cricket follows. That is the introduction of The Sunday Times-Bata Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year competitions which will culminate with the selection of the best among the lot at a gala ceremony later on, where a whopping 50 awards will be on offer.

The Coupons for the Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year Contest will appear in The Sunday Times, Daily Mirror, Daily Lankadeepa and the Tharunaya newspapers starting from January 11th until further notice.

Last year the Top three awards went to Sachith Pathirana of Trinity College (Schoolboy Cricketer of the year All Island), Dinesh Perera (Outstation Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year) and Malith Silva of Gateway International becoming the first ever The Most Outstanding International Schools’ schoolboy cricketer of the year. This also was the very first time a public forum decided to recognise International Schools’ Cricket talent.

Traditionally this competition seeks to recognise the best in school cricket talent in whichever segment it is played in. Through the years it branched off to various segments in the main stream of school cricket and last year they went one step further by recognizing the talent in the international schools segment.
This year there will be more awards. Stepping into the frame this year will be the winner and runner-up cricket teams in the Sabaragamuwa District. In addition there will be more awards in the international segment – they will be the Most Outstanding Player and Runner-up, Best Batsman and runner-up, Best Bowler and runner-up and the Best allrounder and the runner-up.

Besides the Most Popular categories where cricketers would be selected by popular vote, the rest of the pick ill be done by an eminent panel of the judges who will ascertain each cricketers’ achievement through the season and this will include the matches played in the second and third terms too.

This time the organisers Bata Shoe Company and The Sunday Times have also decided to come up with an additional set of awards which will be known as the Sports Desk Choice. In this category a cricketer irrespective of which segment he is playing in will be chosen every month for his performance.

This performance may be an individual outstanding effort or a string of impressive performances through the month. Our sports desk will go through all available performances and select one such cricketer to be recognized. This performance will also be hailed at the end of the season gala event.

All in all it points out to be a great season ahead of us where we could expect good fare in all segments of the game.

All Island Contest
Best Batsman and runner-up
Best Bowler and runner-up
Best Fielder and runner-up
Best Allrounder and runner-up
Best Team and runner-up
Best Up and coming team
Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the
Year and runner-up
Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year and runner-up

Outstation Contest
Best Batsman and runner-up
Best Bowler and runner-up
Best Fielder and runner-up
Best Allrounder and runner-up
Best Team Southern Province and runner-up
Best Team Central Province and runner-up
Best Team Sabaragamuwa Province and runner – Up
Best Team North Western Province and runner-up
Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year and runner-up
Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year and runner-up

International Schools Contest
Best Batsman and runner-up
Best Bowler and runner-up
Best Allrounder and runner-up
Best Team and runner-up
Most popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year and runner-up
Most Outstanding International Schools’ Schoolboy Cricketer of the year
Player of the Month
One player selected every month (4 awards)