Friday Dec 13, 2024
Friday Dec 13, 2024
Monday, 24 April 2017 00:18 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
As the combined results for the 14th and 15th week of the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2017 comes out, a major change has occurred at the top position of the All-Island Schools segment. After nine long weeks, Navindu Nirmal of St. Aloysius College Galle has lost his stranglehold on the top spot as he was dethroned by Lasith Croospulle of Maris Stella College Negombo.
Lasith gained 29,086 votes during the past two weeks, the highest received by a schoolboy cricketer so far in this competition within a fortnight, to top the All-Island Schools segment with a resounding tally of 99,181 votes. Interestingly, most of Lasith’s votes have come from coupons.
His lead over Nirmal, who has been forced down to the second slot, is a healthy 6,014, which means Lasith’s followers have been quite busy even during the holiday season. Nirmal, meanwhile, received 6,582 votes during the two weeks and his tally moves to 93,167. Mohamed Najath of Zahira College has slowed down considerably as his total reaches 58,825 after receiving 2,269 combined votes.
The only change that occurred during the past two weeks is the progress of Mohamed Rifaz of President’s College Kotte from tenth to ninth, which caused the slide of one-time leader Lakshina Rodrigo of St. Peter’s College by a single place. The full list was pruned down to a Top 20 from the beginning of April. The list will be further cut down to 15 by May. By the end of May it will be shortlisted to a Top 10.
Pulitha Yasas Sri Sarathchandra of Sri Sumangala College, Panadura continues to dominate the Emerging Schools category while the International Schools category is still led by Shimraz Shahil of Alethea International School.
Important
Coupons for the competition will be published in the Sunday Times, the two English dailies, the Daily Mirror and Daily FT, and the two Sinhala dailies, Daily Lankadeepa and Ada. Coupons will run for 26 weeks with the deadline set for the week beginning on 2 July. Readers can vote for their favourite schoolboy cricketer and take them to the winning post during that period.
Online voting can be done through Dialog Axiata’s digital online voting system portal. To vote for the Most Popular Cricketer visit www.dialog.lk/cricket. The digital voting counts of weeks 14 and 15 were monitored and approved by auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers.
All-Island Schools
International Schools
Readers prizes go to: 1. Kavindya Rasanjali, 92/4, Amunukumbura, Wathurugama, 2. T.C.K.P. Abeynayake, A-15-B/C-1-42, Ranpokunugama, Nittambuwa, 3. Yustes Fernando, 308B, Jubilee Mawatha, Katunayake, 4. Parakrama Fernando, 40/9, Bellantara Road, Dehiwela.
