Charith Asalanka to be crowned on July 24
Schools cricket in the Southern parts of Sri Lanka is on the rise, there is no argument. Among them the most conspicuous had been Richmond College, Galle who have been churning out many a champion combinations year-in-year-out.
This year was no exception. This year’s Richmond and Sri Lanka Under-19 skipper Charith Asalanka was crowned the 36th Bata-the Sunday Times Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2015. The selections were concluded last week. Charith was the firm favourite among many others, notably Avishka Fernando of St. Sebastian’s College Moratuwa who became second best to him. Both Charith and Avishka have performed well for their respective school teams as well as Sri Lanka Under-19s, being main contributors in the national side as skipper and deputy respectively.
The selection meeting was held at Hotel Ozo in Wellawatte, with officials representing Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association, Sri Lanka Cricket, Umpires’ Association and a panel of former prominent cricketers, notably Jayantha Seneviratne, who headed the selection panel.
While Charith claimed the main crown, making Avishka the second best, Asitha Madushan of St. Sebastian’s College Katuneriya, a main figure of the Sri Lanka Under-19s fast bowling attack was picked as the Emerging Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2015.
Charith won the Best Allrounder’s award and became the Best Bowler runner-up in the All-Island Schools category. In the Emerging Schools category Asitha won the Best Bowler’s award.
The talent of all schoolboy cricketers were highly considered and scrutinized before being agreed upon by a large selection panel of experts. The selection panel, headed by renowned cricketing personality Jayantha Seneviratne, also had big names such as Carlton Bernadus, Aubrey Kuruppu, Upul Sumathipala, Sirosha Gunathilaka and Lakshman Ranasinghe. The panel also included Sri Lanka School Cricket Association and Umpire’s Association officials such as Dilshan de Silva, Jagath Senadeera, Nihal Fernando, J.A.K.S. Indrajith, Nishantha Kumara, Keerthi Gunaratne, Sarathchandra de Silva, Vidura Prasad, Ranganath Prasanna, Saman Mohan and Dissanayake.
Besides them, officials from the Bata Shoe Company, headed by its Managing Director Indrapreet Singh took part at the selections. Prasanna Andaraweera, the Business Manager, also the Chairman of the Organising Committee along with his dynamic team played a key role in putting together all aspects together for the selection meeting which was eventually a success.
Most Popular results next week
The final results of the 36th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2015 will be published in our next weekend’s issue. The eventful competition which commenced in early March ran through 15 weekends with lot of excitement. Readers must be anxious to learn who the eventual winner of the All-Island Schools segment is, as it had so much of power and thrill during the entire phase. The final coupon of the competition appeared in the Sunday Times on June 7 but it was wide open until 12.00noon on June 11. The winners of each category will be officially announced on June 21.