Peterite Sachin bounces back into the lead
Sachin Silva of St. Peter’s College, who had the honour of leading the opening week’s count, regained the top position of the All-Island Schools segment as the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2018 reaches its third week. Sachin added 56 into his existing count, which helped him overtake last week’s leader Kavin Pieris and remain on top with an advantage of 20 votes.
Kavin, of Lumbini College, managed to add 30 in the concluded week as his total count moved up to 105. Despite having a good debut, by taking the lead, Kavin moved down to the second position.
At third is Dulaj Bandara of Dharmaraja College, Kandy while Kalana Perera of S. Thomas’ College takes the fourth slot. Ravindu Fernando of Maris Stella College Negombo debuts at fifth position with a count of 46 votes in the competition where there are 10 contenders in action.
In the Emerging Schools segment, Pulitha Yasas of Sri Sumangala College Panadura remains in the lead for the third week running. He has two rivals in this segment, Sonara Karunathunga of Ananda Sastralaya Kotte and newcomer Pathum Hasaranga of Vidyaloka College, Galle. The newly introduced Girls’ Schools category is yet to kick off.
Players who have represented their respective school in First XI cricket and with a tally of 400 or above runs or 25 wickets or above in the last season will be automatically eligible for the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2018 competition. Schools have been categorised under three categories — the All-Island, Emerging and Girls schools, according to the segmentation process of Sri Lanka School Cricket Association.
All schools competing in the ongoing Inter-School Division I tournament will be categorised under the All-Island Schools while the remaining schools, competing under Division II and III categories, will come under Emerging Schools. The 32 girls schools will come under the Girls category. This method will be effect to the selections as well as for choosing the most popular schoolboy cricketer.
Coupons will be published from October 1 in the Sunday Times and it will follow throughout the week in the two English dailies, the Daily Mirror and DailyFT, and the two Sinhala dailies, Daily Lankadeepa and Ada and Sinhala Weekend, Deshaya. Coupons will run for 26 weeks with the deadline set for April 5, 2018. Readers could vote for their favourite schoolboy or schoolgirl cricketer and take them to the winning post during this period.
In addition Dialog Axiata’s online voting system through their official Online Portal to vote for the Most Popular Cricketer (www.dialog.lk/cricket/register), will come alive from October 1 with player registrations.
The digital voting mechanism will have its usual procedure as last season where all players must register online. Players who wish to enter the fray will have to confirm their participation by registering online with — www.dialog.lk/cricket/register — from October 1 to November 30. Even schoolboy cricketers whose names are entered into the competition by readers must register before that deadline. To validate their registration players should also be registered under the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA) with a valid registration number. Players without a valid registration from SLSCA will not be included in any category of the Most Popular competition. The decision of the Sports Editor of the Sunday Times will be final.
Players who register online during the month of October will be officially scrutinized of their eligibility and entered to the online voting mechanism from November 1, while the customary voting through coupons will be still on. From November 1, the Online Portal will be open for voting while online registration will be still accepted up to November 30. During the month of November, the names of registered players will be released weekly, every Wednesday while the cutoff date for weekly scrutinising will be the previous Friday of each week. Online voting will be open from November 1 to April 5, 2018.
Both coupon votes and online votes will be counted on a weekly basis and the official results published every week beginning next Sunday in the five newspapers and its websites.
The deadline for COUPONS will be every Thursday Noon while the weekly cutoff for ONLINE VOTES will be every Wednesday Noon. Online Votes received after the weekly cutoff time will be counted for the next week, while for Coupons, ONLY those numbered for the particular week will be taken into count.
Results Week 3
All-Island Schools
Name School
Sachin Silva St. Peter’s College 125
Kavin Peiris Lumbini College 105
Dulaj Bandara Dharmaraja College 64
Kalana Perera S. Thomas’ College 47
Ravindu Fernando Maris Stella College 46
Nimnaka Jayathilake St. Anthony’s College 13
Kalana Wijesiri Ananda College 11
Sachin Ravindu St. Joseph’s College 10
Dellon Peiris S. Thomas’ College 9
Mahendra Absolom St. Joseph’s College 4
Emerging Schools
Pulitha Yasas Sri Sumangala Panadura 76
Sonara Karunathunga Ananda Sasthralaya 32
Pathum Hasaranga Vidyaloka Galle 13
Readers prizes go to: 1. Haashya Seneviratne, 274/6, ‘Carlton’, Katunayake, 2. Priyantha Herath, ‘Priyantha Wasa’, Pilapitiya, Kiribathkumbura, 3. Thilan Erandu, 118/5C, Hokandara South, 4. M.A.V.W. Makevita, 326/4A, 11th Lane, Sirimangalawatte, Piliyandala.