Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2018 from October 1
The successful teaming up last season between Wijeya Newspapers and Dialog Axiata was clearly evident, with the nature of the final outcome of the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2017. The whole of the 26-week-long programme had a fitting end with the grand awards ceremony held at the Nelum Pokuna Theatre on July 29, where Nipun Ransika of P. de S. Kularatne MV Ambalangoda, emerged the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Schoolboy Cricketer and Lasith Croosepulle of Maris Stella College Negombo won the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year.
With the success and growing demand, both Wijeya Newspapers and Dialog Axiata have decided to make this programme more viable this time around. The 2018 competition is all set to kick-start from October 1, and will run for 26 weekends, with voting for the Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer. This is the first time the competition will run alongside the School Cricket season.
As such, coupons will be available to readers to vote for their favourite Schoolboy Cricketer, with the first Coupon appearing in the Sunday Times of October 1, and continuously published for 26 weeks in the Sunday Times, English dailies Daily Mirror and Daily FT, and Sinhala dailies Lankadeepa and Ada. In addition, Dialog Axiata will open their web portal for supporters to vote for their favourite Schoolboy Cricketers. Like last season, there will be a different method to follow in the digital process of voting for the favourite Schoolboy Cricketer, as their Most Popular winner.
As usual, Schoolboy Cricketers will come under different categories, mainly All-Island and Emerging. All schools competing in the ongoing Inter-School Division I tournament will be categorised under the All-Island Schools, while the remaining Schools competing in the Division II and III categories, will come under Emerging Schools. In addition, the organisers expect to make new strides by introducing more categories, in addition to the main two. These will be announced in due course.
Eligibility, Online Voting and
Player Registration
As usual, players representing their respective school in 1st XI Cricket, have a tally of 400 or more runs or, 25 wickets or more, in the last season, will be automatically eligible for the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2018 competition.
With the introduction of the digital voting mechanism, the entire interface of the competition is expected to reach another level. However, players who wish to enter the fray will have to confirm their participation by registering online with www.dialog.lk/cricket. Even Schoolboy Cricketers’ names entered into the competition by readers, must register. Players who register online will be officially scrutinised of their eligibility and included into the online voting mechanism, while the customary voting via Coupons will continue. Registration dates and scrutinising methods will be notified soon.
Both Coupon and Online votes will be counted on a weekly basis and the official results published every week beginning Sunday, October 8, in the 5 newspapers and its websites, as well as of Dialog Axiata. The deadline for Online voting will be Wednesday noon, while for Coupons it will be Thursday noon, weekly.
At the same time, readers who help the young Cricketers reach their pinnacle this season, will also be rewarded on a weekly basis. Dialog Axiata will generously present gifts to four lucky winners among the voters, encouraging our readers to be more attached to the contest, as well as the future Cricketing talents of Sri Lanka.
Besides the Most Popular competition, all focus will be on who will be the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2018, which is the main feature of the entire process. Award winners will be selected solely on their performances, and what matters at the end of the day will be the effort they expend as Batsmen, Bowlers, Fielders and All-rounders.
The Panel of Judges, to select the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2018, belonging to different components of the local Cricket structure, will be observing the performances of the youngsters during the ongoing School Cricket season. The engagements of the Sri Lanka Under-19 team, made up of the cream of Schoolboy Cricketers of the island, too, will be followed closely by them. This will be to pick the deserving talents at the final selection, to be held at the conclusion of the School Cricket season, and duly honour them at the night of all nights dedicated to the Schoolboy Cricketers of Sri Lanka.