Pathirana begins his canter
Randev Pathirana has finally started to canter aiming to seal the main prize of the 35th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2014 contest with a few more weeks at hand.
Randev, from Royal College Colombo, had a lead of 2086 last week, but by today he has expanded his lead by 4483 votes ahead of Mazedonian Lahiru Wickramasinghe.
Randev has indicated that he is not ready to stop without breasting the tape after a massive tally of 7007 votes added up to his existing collection.
Lahiru, on the other hand was mindful of his position. Adding up 4610 could have been a good call if not for Randev’s progress. Lahiru too is not ready to give up till the last and the final few weekends is going to be highly interesting because of this fact.
Akila Lakshan of Royal College Panadura remains unchallenged at the third place. His tally too remains the same as a few weeks ago, without any progress. Others in battle are Ravin Sayer of Trinity College, Priyamal Perera of St. Josephs College, Nimesh Gunasinghe of St. Anthony’s College Katugastota, A.K. Tyronne of Richmond College Galle, Yashan Samarasinghe of St. Josephs College, Madushan Chameera of Isipathana College and finally Sri Lanka Under-19 skipper Kusal Mendis of Prince of Wales. They are in the top ten as shortlisted from today.
Others in the race respectively are Sadeera Samarawickrama of St. Josephs College, Minhaj Jaleel of Thurstan College, Thimila Vidyasekera of D.S. Senanayake College, the Zahira duo – Shehan Weerasinghe and Salman Fazeel, Chathuranga Rajapakse of Maris Stella Negombo and Deneth Lanka of Dharmaraja College Kandy.
Danushka Lahiru of Vidyaloka Vidyalaya Galle remains as the leader in the Emerging Schools category for the 16th consecutive week. He remains unchallenged by the rest of the contenders but his closest rival Lahiru Vimukthi of Sri Sumangala College Panadura can spoil his party in the last minute. He is ahead of Lahiru by 459 votes.
Romesh Madushan of Leighton Park has impressed further after claiming the top position of the International Schools category. By now Madushan has 16714 votes, while leading Rasanjana Mallikarachchi by 11954 votes.
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 end of May.