The honour of being selected as the first ever Bata - The Sunday Times schoolboy cricketer of the month – Sports Editor’s Choice for the month of January, has been achieved by St Peter’s skipper Angelo Perera.

The final decision made by the Sports Editor was taken into consideration after there were three main contenders namely Angelo Perera, Ananda skipper Dinesh Chandimal and Gayan Manishan of Maliyadeva.

The three players were the main contenders having completed the 1000 run mark for the season up to now. The winner Angelo Perera completed his 1000 runs in the match against Maris Stella Negombo where he made an unbeaten 155.

Dinesh Chandimal in fact was the first to achieve this feat in his match against Royal while Gayan Manishan of Maliyadeva achieved his feat in the match against De Mazenod.

Taking into account of the innings the three batsmen achieved their feat Angelo reached 1013 runs in 15 innings which included one not out and averaged 72.42, Dinesh Chandimal took 20 innings to make 1001 for an average of 50.05 and Gayan Manishan’s 1015 came from 17 innings to average 56.38. Angelo who is also the leader of the All Island Most Popular schoolboy cricketer contest was unanimously selected the player of the month.
Meanwhile the conclusion of the fourth count of the Bata - The Sunday Times All Island Most Popular Schoolboy cricketer contest saw St Peter’s skipper Angelo Perera is maintaining the lead for the fourth successive week.

Angelo polled 593 votes ending February 6 to increase his votes to 1809. There was no changes in the remaining four positions with Dharmaraja’s Buwaneka Ekanayake receiving 103 votes to end on 296, followed by Royal skipper Yasith Abeykoon who received 88 votes ending on 185, Nishika de Silva of St Joseph’s receiving 36 votes and Navin Kavikara of DSS receiving 16 votes.

The contest in the Outstation and International School contests also saw Amith Tillekeratne of Sri Rahula Kandy and Malith Silva of Gateway College maintain their lead with no contest at all. Amith received 115 votes to finish on 234 while Malith received 69 votes to accumulate 255 votes.