Lookout for Dellon – he is galloping
@ Kaveesha opens the Women’s competition
Sachin Silva’s dominance in the All-Island Schools continues for another week, as the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2018 completes its fourth week. However Sachin, of St. Peter’s College, could find a close rival building up in Dellon Peiris of S. Thomas’ College, who romped from ninth place to second in a matter of a week.
Sachin had his count swell by a further 146 votes, as his total moved up to 271, but Dellon could be termed as the best performer for the week. The Thomian allrounder received 204 votes during the fourth week and his count rocketed from 9 to 213, enabling him to snatch the second slot.
The deficit between the top two are 58 and it could be a matter of few weeks, until both competitors engage in a close off-the-field rivalry.
Kavin Pieris of Lumbini College made a surprising entry a couple of weeks back by dethroning Sachin to take the top spot, but after three weeks he further slipped down to third place. His tally moved up to 161, after adding up 56 in the ended week. Dulaj Bandara of Dharmaraja College too lost a place as a result of Dellon’s rising, and is currently at fourth with a tally of 104 votes. He received 40 votes for this week.
Kalana Perera, the second Thomian in the list, is at fifth with a tally of 65 votes and one vote behind him is Ravindu Fernando of Maris Stella College. In total the list of competitors has stretched up to 14 by this week.
In the Emerging Schools segment, Pulitha Yasas of Sri Sumangala College Panadura remains in the lead for the fourth week running. He may have a rivalry in weeks to come with Sonara Karunathunga of Ananda Sastralaya Kotte, who is 18 votes behind.
The newly introduced Girls’ Schools category kicked off with Kaveesha Dilhari of Devapathiraja College Rathgama. Kaveesha, also a member of the Sri Lanka Women’s Development Squad, received 37 votes.
Players who have represented their respective schools in First XI cricket and with a tally of 400 or above runs or 25 wickets or above in the last season will be automatically eligible for the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2018 competition. Schools have been categorised under three categories — the All-Island, Emerging and Girls schools, according to the segmentation process of Sri Lanka School Cricket Association.
All schools competing in the ongoing Inter-School Division I tournament will be categorised under the All-Island Schools while the remaining schools, competing under Division II and III categories, will come under Emerging Schools. The 32 girls schools will come under the Girls category. This method will be effective for the selections as well as for choosing the most popular schoolboy cricketer.
Coupons will be published from October 1 in the Sunday Times and it will follow throughout the week in the two English dailies, the Daily Mirror and DailyFT, and the two Sinhala dailies, Daily Lankadeepa and Ada and Sinhala Weekend, Deshaya. Coupons will run for 26 weeks with the deadline set for April 5, 2018. Readers could vote for their favourite schoolboy or schoolgirl cricketer and take them to the winning post during this period.
In addition Dialog Axiata’s online voting system through their official Online Portal to vote for the Most Popular Cricketer (www.dialog.lk/cricket/register), will come alive from October 1 with player registrations.
The digital voting mechanism will have its usual procedure as last season where all players must register online. Players who wish to enter the fray will have to confirm their participation by registering online with — www.dialog.lk/cricket/register — from October 1 to November 30. Even schoolboy cricketers whose names are entered into the competition by readers must register before that deadline. To validate their registration players should also be registered under the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA) with a valid registration number. Players without a valid registration from SLSCA will not be included in any category of the Most Popular competition. The decision of the Sports Editor of the Sunday Times will be final.
Players who register online during the month of October will be officially scrutinized of their eligibility and entered to the online voting mechanism from November 1, while the customary voting through coupons will be still on. From November 1, the Online Portal will be open for voting while online registration will be still accepted up to November 30. During the month of November, the names of registered players will be released weekly, every Wednesday while the cutoff date for weekly scrutinising will be the previous Friday of each week. Online voting will be open from November 1 to April 5, 2018.
Both coupon votes and online votes will be counted on a weekly basis and the official results published every week beginning next Sunday in the five newspapers and its websites.
The deadline for COUPONS will be every Thursday Noon while the weekly cutoff for ONLINE VOTES will be every Wednesday Noon. Online Votes received after the weekly cutoff time will be counted for the next week, while for Coupons, ONLY those numbered for the particular week will be taken into count.
Result week 4
All-Island Schools
Sachin Silva (St. Peter’s College) 271
Dellon Peiris (S. Thomas’ College) 213
Kavin Peiris (Lumbini College) 161
Dulaj Bandara (Dharmaraja College) 104
Kalana Perera (S. Thomas’ College) 65
Ravindu Fernando (Maris Stella College) 64
Sachin Ravindu (St. Joseph’s College) 23
Nimnaka Jayathilake (St. Anthony’s College) 18
Kalana Wijesiri (Ananda College) 18
Mahendra Absolom (St. Joseph’s College) 16
Yasitha Samarasinghe (Dharmaraja College) 14
Navod Paranavithana (Mahinda College) 2
Kamindu Mendis (Richmond College) 1
Pasindu Madhawa (Maris Stella College) 1
Emerging Schools
Pulitha Yasas (Sri Sumangala Panadura) 109
Sonara Karunathunga (Ananda Sasthralaya) 91
Pathum Hasaranga (Vidyaloka Galle) 16
Girls’ Schools
Kaveesha Dilhari (Devapathiraja, Rathgama) 37
Readers prizes go to: 1. B.K. Goonasekara, 26/1, Station Lane, Nugegoda, 2. Milan Alahakoon, 175/17J, Weera Mawatha, Depanama, Pannipitiya, 3. Nathan Amath, 40/41, Katuwawela Road, Maharagama, 4. Faleel Booso, 443/02, St. Rita’s Road, Daluwakotuwa, Kochchikade.