Don’t count Yohan out
The All-Island Schools contest of the 37th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2016 competition completes its ninth week this weekend with the battle between the top two contenders Pawan Dias and Lahiru Thambawita hotting up. Pawan of Royal College Panadura added 803 to take his tally to 3753 while Lahiru of Holy Cross College Kalutara notched 3182 after obtaining 584 votes.
The deficit between the two gradually eased to 342 by last week but by this week Pawan’s progress takes it to 571. However Yohan Mendis of S. Thomas’ College is running intact closely behind at third with a tally of 2100. He whooshed ten places last week and makes his intention clear with the addition of 618 votes in the ended week. Yohan might be 1000 or more votes behind the top two contenders but with ample time in hand he could be a threat to both of them in the coming weeks. Others remain in their respective places.
Madawa Fernando of De La Salle College Mutwal remains as the leader of the Emerging Schools category for the ninth continuous week without much challenge from Dilshan Madushanka of Siri Piyarathana Central Padukka, who entered the fray four weeks ago. The International Schools category is yet to kick off.
In the coming weekend the results of the 37th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2016 will not be published owing the holiday season of Sinhala and Tamil New Year. However coupons will appear as usual with instructions on deadlines and a combined result of two weekends (April 17 and 24) will appear in the Sunday Times on April 24. As for the All-Island category, the list will be pruned down from April 24 to ten names. Presently 21 names of contenders appear in this segment and it will be up to the followers and supporters to help their favourite schoolboy cricketer to be among the top ten.
Coupons of the 37th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2015 will appear on Wijeya Newspaper’s dailies, the Daily Mirror and Lankadeepa and also its weekend English issue, the Sunday Times and the Sinhala weekly Deshaya. Readers will be able to send in as much as coupons in favour of their favourite schoolboy cricketer until mid May.
