Dellon continues to stamp his authority
S. Thomas’ College ace left-arm spinner Dellon Peiris, as he is known to his on-field abilities, continues to rule the All-Island Schools segment of the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy / Schoolgirl Cricketer of the Year 2018 competition. Dellon is surely making his intentions clear with the rapid progress, by adding up 1639 votes, which took his tally to 2254 by the end of the sixth week. He leads Sachin Silva of St. Peter’s College by 1183 votes, a healthy margin at this stage of the 26-week long competition.
Sachin too has made good progress, but not productive as Dellon, as he continues to remain at second spot. He has added 782 votes during the week as the total moves up to 1071, slightly above Kavin Peiris of Lumbini College by 83 votes. Kavin received the second best count for the week, by receiving a count of 804 votes.
Dulaj Bandara of Dharmaraja College remains at fourth place with an addition of 219 votes and a tally of 363 while Ravindu Fernando of Maris Stella College pushed down Kalana Perera of S. Thomas’ College by a place to claim the fifth position within the first week of the introduction of digital voting via www.dialog.lk/cricket.
Sonara Karunathunga of Ananda Sasthralaya Kotte, continues to enjoy the top position of the Emerging Schools, which he claimed last week. With the addition of 298 votes, Sonara takes his tally up to 453, a lead of 286 votes from Pulitha Yasas of Sri Sumangala College, Panadura. Pulitha continues at second place with 167 votes, after adding up 51 last week. Sonara’s team mate Thimira Malshan has not received any votes, but he remains at the third slot.
The newly introduced Girls’ School category, has interestingly, made good progress. Kaveesha Dilhari of Devapathiraja College, Ratgama continues to dominate the segment with 43 votes but she has got two rivals — Harshitha Samarawickrama of Anula Vidyalaya and Ruwini Nandasena of St. Joseph’s Girls’ School — as the battle looks to be an interesting one.
Players who have represented their respective schools in First XI cricket and with a tally of 400 or above runs or 25 wickets or above in the last season will be 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.
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), came 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.
Names of players who registered online during the month of October were officially scrutinised 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. This week’s digital voting count was monitored and approved by auditors PricewaterHouse Cooper.
All-Island Schools
Name School
Dellon Peiris S. Thomas’ College 2254
Sachin Silva St. Peter’s College 1071
Kavin Peiris Lumbini College 988
Dulaj Bandara Dharmaraja College 363
Ravindu Fernando Maris Stella College 115
Kalana Perera S. Thomas’ College 88
Yasitha Samararathne Dharmaraja College 51
Mahendra Absolom St. Joseph’s College 30
Kalana Wijesiri Ananda College 24
Sachin Ravindu St. Joseph’s College 23
Nimnaka Jayathilake St. Anthony’s College 23
Emerging Schools
Sonara Karunathunga Ananda Sasthralaya 453
Pulitha Yasas Sri Sumangala Panadura 167
Thimira Malshan Ananda Sasthralaya 41
Pathum Hasaranga Vidyaloka Galle 29
Girls’ School
Kaveesha Dilhari Devapathiraja, Rathgama 43
Harshitha Samarawickrama Anula Vidyalaya 13
Ruwini Nandasena St. Joseph’s Girls School 1
Readers prizes go to: 1. Ishandi Gunawardene, Kennavita, Palathurupitiya, Hindellana, Ratnapura, 2. K.C. Manchanayaka, 233, Mackwatte, Asgiriya, Gampaha, 3. Sahan Deshapriya, B/G/1, Vithanage Mawatha, Colombo 2, 4. Dhananjaya Premathilaka, 23/B, Thammita, Makevita.