Competition gathering momentum with Navod revving up

Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy / Schoolgirl Cricketer of the Year 2019

As the sixth week of the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2019 contest comes to an end Sukhitha Manoj of St. Sebastian’s College Moratuwa is gaining ground in the All-island Schools segment.

Navod Paranavithana of Mahinda College, who a couple of weeks ago at No.4, has moved to No.3 by claiming the highest number of votes, 329, while taking his tally to 480, which is an indication of a potential race to the top in the coming weeks.

Manoj, who enjoys the continuous leadership for the sixth consecutive week, added 207 to take his tally to 1544, while Lakshitha Rasanjana of Nalanda College, takes his total to 534 after adding 98 to his tally in the ended week. The difference between the two is 1010 while the difference between the first and third is 1064.

With the current pace the top two contenders should expect the unexpected in weeks to come. The list moves on to 20 with the inclusion of Naushan Rafeel of St. Anne’s College Kurunegala at 12 with 32 votes.

Vishal Rukshan of St. Peter’s College Gampaha, continues to lead the Emerging Schools category with an overwhelming tally of 1552. He added 574 in the ended week, the overall highest votes received during the week, while leading Thanusha Sandaruwan of St. John’s College, Nugegoda, by 632. Lithija Kalhara of Ananda Maithree NS Balangoda, Sachin Jayasinghe of Royal College Panadura and Chamod Sandaru of Piliyandala Central follow.

Sathya Sadeepani of Devapathiraja College Rathgama took her tally to 101 while continuing to lead the Girls’ Schools category, which was introduced to the ever popular competition in the country last season. She pushed down Sithmi Nirasha of Anula Vidyalaya Nugegoda to second spot two weeks ago.

The nature of the race to the top could definitely hit a peak as the weeks progress with 20 more weekends to go before it comes to an interesting end. Coupons will be published in the Sunday Times, the two English dailies, the Daily Mirror 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 Tamil Mirror.

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 next week. 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.