Nirmal holds on his lead at the end of count 8

Week 8 of the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2017 comes to an end with an unchanged Top 10 in the now aggressive All-Island Schools segment.

The leader Navindu Nirmal of St. Aloysius’ College Galle retains at his slot having received the most number of combined votes during the week with 11,748 as his tally moves to 49,142.

Zahira College’s Mohamed Najath too remains at second with the addition of 6,153 combined votes but his total is way behind Navindu. Najath’s tally of 36,406, is 12,736 votes behind the leader as Lasith Croospulle added 4,085 combined votes to take his tally to 23,449. Others in the list too have added to their existing tallies but not as big as the top three. 

Only four visible changes were seen in the list this week with Mohamed Rifaz of Presidents’ College, Hareen Buddhila of St. Aloysius’, Pasindu Sooriyabandara of Royal College and Sanjula Abeywickrama of Isipathana College making little progress by gaining a place each to the top from last week.

This list will remain open until end of March, before it is pruned down to the Top 20. By end of April the list will be cut down to 15 and by end of May only the Top 10 will be shown. This will be valid to all categories of the competition.

Pulitha Yasas Sri Sarathchandra of Sri Sumangala College Panadura continues to dominate the Emerging Schools category while the International Schools category is led by the sole runner Shimraz Shahil of Alethea International School.

Coupons of 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 week beginning on 2 July. Readers could vote for their favourite schoolboy cricketer and take them to the winning post during that period.

Online voting could be done through Dialog Axiata’s digital online voting system Portal to vote for the Most Popular Cricketer via www.dialog.lk/cricket. Player registration closed on 28 February. Both coupon votes and online votes will be counted on a weekly basis and the official results published every week in the five newspapers and its websites, as well as that of Dialog Axiata’s Online Portal. 

The deadline for online voting will be the same as for the coupons. Accepting coupons valid for each week will be received only until Thursday noon on each week. Online voting for each week will be counted by Thursday noon each week. This deadline will be strictly implemented by the organisers. The whole process is closely monitored and reported by Pricewaterhouse Cooper, the official auditors of the competition.

Coupons for the related week will not be accepted after Thursday. Canvassing in any form will be a disqualification. The Sports Editor of the Sunday Times reserves all rights to disqualify such players if any illegal movements is found with proof.

All-Island Schools

Navindu Nirmal (St. Aloysius’ Galle) 49142

Mohamed Najath (Zahira College) 36406

Lasith Croosepulle (Maris Stella College) 23449

Charana Nanayakkara (Thurstan College) 9881

Santhush Goonathilake (St. Peter’s College) 7697

Romesh Nallaperuma (S. Thomas’ College) 6364

Dinitha Basnayake (St. Benedict’s College) 4039

Helitha Vithanage (Royal College) 1472

Lakshina Rodrigo (St. Peter’s College) 1081

Sahan Suraweera (Ananda College) 656

Mohamed Rifaz (Presidents College) 641

Dileepa Jayalath (Ananda College) 494

P.A. Dananjaya (Richmond College) 283

Nikesh Anjana (S. Thomas’ College) 265

Hareen Buddhila (St. Aloysius College) 209

Sammu Ashan (Ananda College) 187

Asel Sigera (Ananda College) 155

Pasindu Sooriyabandara (Royal College) 123

Jehan Daniel (St. Joseph’s College) 85

Sanjula Abeywickrama (Isipathana College) 55

Naveen Gunawardana (Thurstan College) 50

Avishka Perera (Nalanda College) 45

Dineth Madurawala (St. Joseph’s College) 25

Thilina Perera (Wesley College) 24

Shanogeeth Shanmuganathan (Trinity College) 24

Salith Fernando (St. Anthony’s Wattala) 17

Kavindu Gimhana (Ananda College) 15

Pathum Nissanka (Isipathana College) 14

Thilina Nemesh (Prince of Wales’) 9

Avishka Fernando (St. Sebastian’s Moratuwa) 8

Lasith Udage (St. Mary’s Kegalle) 3

Emerging Schools

Pulitha Yasas (Sri Sumangala Panadura) 1661

Gimhana Dhanushan (Piliyandala Central) 112

Methushan Thilina (Kegalu Vidyalaya) 79

Nipuna Ransika (P. de S. Kularatne MV) 59

Raveen Yasas (Devapathiraja Rathgama) 37

Hirusha Mendis (Siddartha Central Balapitiya) 27

Sahan Perera (Christ King Pannipitiya) 24

Imesh Basnayake (St. Peter’s Gampaha) 19

Suminda Lakshan (De La Salle Mutwal) 16

Tissara Dilshan Jayananda (National School Polonnaruwa) 3

Shrushee Adhishtana (St. Bernadette Kurunegala) 1

International Schools

Shimraz Shahil (Alethea International) 81

Readers prizes go to: 1. Anushka Perera, 217/12, Jayasinghe Place, Hendala, Wattala, 2. Mohamed Salman, 58 2/3, Sri Mahinda Dhamma Mawatha, Colombo 9, 3. Chandrapali Perera, 446/2, Daham Mawatha, Meegoda, 4. R.R. Bopegamage, 362/A2/1, Hamugehena, Udupila North, Delgoda.