Randev Pathirana of Royal regains lead in count 13
Last week he needed 602 votes to become the leader and this week Randev Pathirana of Royal College Colombo leads the 35th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2014 contest by 1120 votes.
Randev took over the reins again from Lahiru Wickramasinghe of De Mazenod College Kandana as the leadership of the main segment of the competition shifted once more. Randev strengthened his journey after adding 5474 votes from the concluded week; to enjoy the New Year vacation in a manner he would not forget.
But, with barely six weeks remaining in the contest, Randev will have to buckle up his shoes as Lahiru has the potential to strike back at any moment. The fact that Lahiru was able to add up just 3753 votes to his tally can be a brief setback for him. The third slot is meant for Akila Lakshan of Royal College Panadura. Lakshan is not in a position to challenge the top two contestants ahead of him, nor those who are below him in order to show the interest in order to give him a challenge. He is over 23,000 votes behind the top two but Ravin Sayer of Trinity College Kandy, who is at fourth, is in a position to give Lakshan some sort of fight. The difference between the two is 4856 votes.
From fifth to tenth are Priyamal Perera of St. Joseph’s College, Nimesh Gunasinghe of St. Anthony’s College Katugastota, A.K. Tyronne of Richmond College Galle, Kusal Perera of Prince of Wales’ College Moratuwa, Madushan Chameera of Isipathana College and Yashan Samarasinghe of St. Joseph’s College.
The most successful of all contenders is Pathanian Chameera who shows great potential to reach the top three. After a slow start he is presently at ninth position.
Danushka Lahiru of Vidyaloka Vidyalaya Galle continues to lead the Emerging Schools contest for the 13th consecutive week. He has managed to expand the lead ahead of Lahiru Vimukthi of Sri Sumangala College Panadura by 445 votes. Others in the race show very little progress as they still find it hard to pass the triple figures.
Romesh Madushan of Leighton Park is turning out to be untouchable in the International Schools contest. Madushan seems to have stamped his authority in this segment of the competition but if Rasanjana Mallikarachchi of Lyceum Nugegoda can obtain votes something closer to 9,000, a stiff contest will be back on the cards in this category.
Coupons of the 35th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2014 will appear on Wijeya Newspaper’s dailies, the Daily Mirror and Lankadeepa and also its weekend English issue, the Sunday Times. Readers will be able to send in as much as coupons in favour of their favourite schoolboy cricketer until the end of May.