Competition kicks off with eight contenders going beyond 500 mark
The 36th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2015 contest, which kicked off on February 15, has made sturdy progress within a matter of a week. So far names of 20 schoolboy cricketers are in the list and out of them 16 have already reached the triple figure.
Eight out of the lot have surpassed the 500 mark and leading the way in the first week is Himesha Ranganath, a bowling all-rounder from Royal College Panadura. He has 801 votes to his name. Behind him is Richmond College skipper, Sri Lanka Under-19s captain and all-rounder Charith Asalanka, who trails by 70 votes. Last year’s winner Randev Pathirana of Royal College Colombo is slotted at third place with 699 votes. Randev is closely pursued by Zahira College all-rounder Shehan Weerasinghe, teammate Harith Samarasinghe and St. Joseph’s College skipper Pathum Madushanka.
Josephian all-rounder Aravinda Akurugoda is just three votes behind his skipper with 615 in his account. The eighth in the list is Trinity College off-spinner Ravin Sayer.
Others in fray are: Sachindu Kolambage of Maris Stella College, Nipun Smanasinghe of St. Joseph’s, Dineth Navodya of St. Peter’s College, Prabath Kappetipola of Maliyadeva College, Kanishka Ukgalpaya of St. Anthony’s College Katugastota, Tharindu Rathnayake of S. Thomas’ College and Sahan Arachchige of Ananda College. The remaining four in the list – Thanisha Weerakoon of St. Peter’s, Thimira Jayasinghe of Thurstan College, Lasith Ambuldeniya of Royal Colombo and Vinu Mohotti of St. Peter’s have less than 100 votes to their names. However the margins are narrow and could change the context of the contest as it progresses.
So far no names appear in the Emerging Schools and International Schools categories. Coupons of the 36th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2015 will appear on Wijeya Newspaper’s dailies, the Daily Mirror and Lankadeepa and also its weekend English issue, the Sunday Times and the Sinhala weekly Deshaya. Readers will be able to send in many coupons in support of their favourite schoolboy cricketer until mid June.