Lakshan takes initial lead as 16 contestants surpass 100 mark
View(s):The 35th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2014 contest, which kicked off on January 1, has made 
interesting progress this season with 16 of the young cricketers surpassing the triple figure mark. Today the Sunday Times publish this year’s first count, based on the amount of votes received from the period of January 1 to 15, and Akila Lakshan of Royal College Panadura comes out as the leader of the main segment.
Lakshan leads the All-Island Schools segment with 498 votes, a clear advantage of 161 votes from A.K. Tyronne of Richmond College Galle, who has obtained a tally of 337. Trinity College spinner Ravin Sayer is overall third in the first week with 312 votes, 186 behind Lakshan and trails Tyronne by a meagre 25 votes. Sri Lanka Under-19s skipper and Prince of Wales’ batsman Kusal Mendis is at fourth closely behind with 307 votes.
St. Joseph’s College allrounder Priyamal Perera is in fifth position with 299 votes ahead of St. Anthony’s College Katugastota batsman Nimesh Gunasinghe and team-mate and Sri Lanka Under-19 deputy skipper Sadeera Samarawickrema. Thurstan College all-rounder Minhaj Jaleel, who led last year’s competition all the way before conceding his place to Wesley College cricketer Basith Muzammil, who went on to win the contest in 2013. Others in fray are Thimila Vidyasekara of D.S. Senanayake, Randev Pathirana of Royal College Colombo, Shehan Weerasinghe and Salman Fazeel of Zahira College Colombo, Deneth Lanka of Dharmaraja College Kandy, Dilanka Sandaken of Ananda College, Thilaksha Sumanasiri of S. Thomas’ College Mt. Lavinia and Chathuranga Rajapakse of Maris Stella College Negombo. The margins that are narrow could change the context of the contest as it progresses.
The Emerging Schools category at the moment has five contenders in battle and Dhanushka Lahiru of Vidyaloka Vidyalaya Galle leads the way with 289 votes. Behind him is Lahiru Vimukthi of Sri Sumangala College Panadura. Vimukthi finished as the runner-up in this segment last year to a rival from Vidyaloka Galle, Sanju Sharukh. Matara schoolboy cricketers Lasitha Lakshan of St. Thomas’ College and Harsha Rajapakse and Kalana Hasanga of Rahula College are the remaining contenders. Rasanga Mallikarachchi of Lyceum Nugegoda is the sole contender of the International Schools segment.
Coupons of the 35th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2014 will appear on Wijeya Newspaper’s dailies, the Daily Mirror and Lankadeepa and also its weekend English issue, the Sunday Times. Readers will be able to send in as much as coupons in favour of their favourite schoolboy cricketer until end of May.