Lahiru forges ahead with a wad of votes
Randev Pathirana’s luck came to a standstill last week after Lahiru Wickramasinghe’s sudden surge. By this weekend, though a stiff battle was anticipated, the progress of Lahiru of De Mazenod College Kandana has only put Randev of Royal College Colombo in further distress.
When Randev received an overwhelming count of 11901 votes, during the ended week, Lahiru galloped further with an addition of 14402 votes.
This gives Lahiru another week of breathing space, as he leads by 5144 votes, a count that can be considered fragile at this stage of the 35th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year. The main category of three, the All-Island Contest is expected to become more intense with just two weekends remaining before the closure.
After many weeks, third in the race Akila Lakshan of Royal College Panadura has eventually managed to obtain some votes. He is closer to 60,000 votes away from second-placed Randev which indicates the complexity of his situation. What makes Akila’s position more vulnerable is the progress of Madushan Chameera, who is at fifth behind Ravin Sayer of Trinity College.
Madushan of Isipathana College was nowhere in the picture sometimes ago, and he entered the race at the bottom. He gradually progressed week after week and is slotted at fifth by this week. With two more weeks to go, he has the ability to even challenge the third 
position held by Akila.
Others in the race, from the sixth position, are Priyamal Perera of St. Joseph’s, Nimesh Gunasinghe of At. Anthony’s Katugastota, A.K. Tyronne of Richmond, Yashan Samarasinghe of St. Joseph’s and Kusal Mendis of Prince of Wales’ in the top ten.
The Emerging Schools Contest is still the stronghold of Danushka Lahiru of Vidyaloka Vidyalaya Galle. He was seen coming under attack from his immediate rival Lahiru Vimukthi. But Danushka managed to brush aside the threat with some votes to his account and the sudden silence of Lahiru. With just 121 votes from last week, Danushka took his lead further to 324. Lahiru just received 49 votes last week and more votes in his favour could make the Emerging Schools Contest more vibrant.
Romesh Madushan of Leighton Park indicated that he is not ready to give any room to his rivals with a surprising count of 4164 votes from last week. This puts him further in a comfortable mood with the lead running up to 16124 from his immediate rival Rasanjana Mallikarachchi of Lyceum Nugegoda.
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. The final coupon of this year’s Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year contest will appear in the Sunday Times issue on May 25. Coupons will be received until May 29 before the final count is officially issued.