Sukhitha Manoj consolidates his position
Sukhitha Manoj of St. Sebastian’s College Moratuwa consolidated his position as the leader of the pack of the Allisland Schools category, as he expanded his lead in a big way in the third week of the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2019 contest.
Manoj added 295 votes in the ended week as he took his tally to 481, and lead second placed Lakshitha Rasanjana of Nalanda College by a staggering margin of 383. Rasanjana was placed fourth last week and with an addition of 40 votes in the ended week, he jumped to second place.
Behind him is Abhishek Kumara of Trinity College, who slid down by one place to third, with a tally of 82 votes.
Others in the list are Ravindu Fernando (Maris Stella), Nishan Madushanka (Moratu Vidyalaya), Pasindu Ushetti (Maris Stella), Nuwanidu Fernando (St. Sebastian’s Moratuwa), Randheer Ranasinghe (St. Anne’s Kurunegala), Sandun Mendis (Richmond), Dinitha Prabhanaka (Devapathiraja Rathgama) and Pasindu Bandara (Trinity).
The Emerging Schools category, where players of Division II and III cricket playing schools get to come among the top, was initiated by Thanusha Sandaruwan Costa of St. John’s College, Nugegoda last week. He expanded his lead by a further 81 votes to his existing tally of 54 votes, as his total moved to 135 this week. He is currently sitting comfortable against the two contenders Vishal Rukshan (St. Peter’s Gampaha) and Sachin Jayasinghe (Royal Panadura).
The Girls’ Schools category, which was introduced to the ever popular competition in the country last season, runs solo for the moment. Sithmi Nirasha of Anula Vidyalaya Nugegoda takes the sole run, but in weeks to come she is certainly to have more rivalry from other contenders who have already shown interest.
The nature of the race to the top could definitely hit a peak as weeks progress with 23 more weekends to go before it comes to an interesting end. Coupons will be published in the Sunday Times, the two English dailies, the and Dailyft, and the two Sinhala dailies, Daily Lankadeepa and Ada and Sinhala Weekend, Deshaya. From this year coupons will also come will out in the Tamilmirror.
Readers could vote for their favourite schoolboy or schoolgirl cricketer and take them to the winning post during this period before the deadline of 26 weeks come to an end.
In addition Dialog Axiata’s online voting system through their official Online Portal to vote for the Most Popular Cricketer (www.dialog.lk/cricket), will come alive from November 16. Players of all categories, including those already in the fray through coupons, should register themselves following the link www.dialog.lk/cricket/ register. The method to follow in the digital registration process has been made simple for schoolboys and schoolgirls. Already a good number of players have registered and their names will be published in weeks to come after necessary verification.
Players who have represented their respective school 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.
ONLINE REGISTRATION
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 14 to November 16. 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 scrutinised of their eligibility and entered to the online voting mechanism from November 16, 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 16. 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 21 to March 31, 2019.
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, as well as that of Dialog Axiata’s Online Portal.
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.